Orioles pass the baton, showing offensive upside, to begin Blue Jays series with win

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TORONTO — The cascading effect reached Rogers Centre in the second inning, and once put in motion, this was hard to stop. The Orioles just did this in their previous game — one after another, getting on base, creating pressure — and they were back at it again.

Gunnar Henderson singled. Samuel Basallo followed with a single of his own. Christian Encarnacion-Strand flailed way out of the strike zone on a two-strike slider, but his blooper landed for a single, as well. The line was moving, the bases were loaded, the Orioles were at it again.

The breakthroughs came in quick succession — Heston Kjerstad’s RBI single, Colton Cowser’s two-run double and Dylan Beavers’ two-run single. Just like that, Baltimore leaped to a commanding lead against right-hander Max Scherzer and the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Orioles rode that one grand inning to a series-opening 7-4 victory Friday night.

“Great swings, great approaches,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “There was a lot to like.”

It became closer than seemed possible by the ninth inning, although the second inning must have left fans thinking, that’s more like it.

That is the offense many hoped to see at the onset of the season, and now in two straight games, the pass-the-baton success made itself felt, at least for one inning.

On Wednesday, Baltimore scored eight runs in a mind-bending display of contact leading to results. On Friday, the Orioles followed Beavers’ leadoff homer in the first with a five-run second inning.

It is, of course, a challenging endeavor to score runs in bunches in the majors. Teams don’t manage it frequently, for good reason. And, like every team, the Orioles want to do damage at the plate. That includes hitting for power — which Coby Mayo showed, in the seventh inning.

But, in the span of two games, two big innings showed a side of Baltimore’s offense that was refreshing, and it proved there is more here than a power approach. Perhaps it appeared too late — with 14 games remaining, the Orioles are 72-76 and remain on the outside (not by much) looking in at the postseason. Either way, if there’s time or not, the second-inning display in a vacuum was encouraging.

“Everybody was just really dialed in with their approach they went into the game with,” Kjerstad said. “Swinging at good pitches and just giving ABs to the guy behind you. Nobody’s trying to do too much, taking what we’ve got and driving runs in, one after another.”

And, at the very least, it keeps Baltimore alive. As Beavers said Wednesday night, the Orioles couldn’t hope to win 15 games in one go. They had to focus one game at a time. The first game on this sprint to the finish line was a success, and now there are two more in Toronto before a three-game set in New York against the Mets.

After the contest, right-hander Chris Bassitt called this a must-win game for the Orioles. There are many of those still to come, too.

“Is every game must-win? No,” Bassitt said. “But you kind of have to treat every game right now like a must-win. We don’t have a lot of games left. We have a little bit more to go from a wild-card standpoint. Yeah, it’s just, playing clean, but playing with the sense of urgency that we need to, being smart, but every game is really important.”

The Orioles jumped all over Scherzer, the 42-year-old who is on his way to becoming a Hall of Famer. Beavers opened the scoring with his solo shot, and then six straight batters reached safely to begin the second inning.

Scherzer settled down to last five innings, but Mayo provided an insurance run in the seventh when he belted a pull-side homer off right-hander Braydon Fisher.

Mayo, who has 23 home runs, has hit three straight against right-handed pitchers. Prior to this run Mayo’s production was mostly limited to left-handers, but his increased playing time in the second half has allowed the 24-year-old to continue blossoming. In the second half, Mayo is hitting .274 with a .911 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

“When he’s getting the good pitch to hit, he’s just not missing it right now,” Albernaz said.

He is an example of the Orioles’ power potential. The second inning showed more multifaceted potential from the lineup. That production covered for two runs off Bassitt in five innings, and it propelled the Orioles to a win to begin their penultimate road trip of the season.

This was a rare instance in which Bassitt, 37, was younger than his starting pitching counterpart. Scherzer and Bassitt have been teammates with the Mets and Blue Jays, and Bassitt joined Baltimore after three seasons in Toronto.

Bassitt said Scherzer is “one of my, if not my, favorite player to play with.” That added a specialness to Friday’s game, and Bassitt is fortunate to have come out on the winning side, or else he’d never hear the end of it from his old teammates.

“For sure not, for sure not,” Bassitt said when asked if he frequently is the younger starter anymore. “I definitely feel like one of the older guys.”

Then Bassitt paused before laughing. He added: “But, yeah, Max is old.”

This win could’ve been easier. The Blue Jays riled up their sold-out crowd, however, with four straight two-out, ninth-inning hits. Brett Bateman hit his first career home run, a two-run shot off right-hander Alex Hoppe, before two more singles prompted Albernaz to remove Hoppe from the game.

Right-hander Rico Garcia forced a fielder’s choice to end it, however, securing the victory.

At this time of year, the final score is all that matters. But it matters elsewhere, too. As the Cleveland Guardians wrapped up a victory against the Minnesota Twins about an hour after the final out in Toronto, the best Baltimore could do was keep pace. The Orioles remained three games back of the final wild-card spot, and time is running short.

This article has been updated.