Orioles hand Jays seventh straight loss
TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays rolled out a new brand campaign this season built around the hashtag ‘LetsRise.’
The club’s marketing team sees it as a rallying cry for a squad with aspirations of returning to the post-season. The omnipresent hashtags at Rogers Centre are serving as a reminder there’s nowhere to go but up for a team off to the worst start in its history.
A 6-4 defeat to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night extended Toronto’s losing skid to seven games and left the Blue Jays with a woeful 1-9 record.
“You’ve just got to keep grinding through it,” said Toronto first baseman Justin Smoak. “It’ll turn.”
The signs indicate that might be wishful thinking. The Blue Jays struck out 15 times Friday night and did not take a base on balls. The team offence has been anemic and only decent pitching has prevented uglier scorelines.
Let’s Rise? So far it’s what spectators say as they leave their seats an inning or two early to beat the postgame traffic.
Toronto is last in Major League Baseball’s overall standings and sits in the basement in several offensive categories.
The Orioles used the long ball for their latest victory, lighting up starter Aaron Sanchez (0-1) for three homers and adding another blast off reliever Jason Grilli in the ninth.
Chris Davis, Jonathan Schoop, J.J. Hardy and Seth Smith went yard as Baltimore improved to 7-2, tops in the American League East division standings.
To their credit, the Blue Jays made a game of it. Toronto brought the winning run to the plate in the ninth before closer Zach Britton struck out Steve Pearce to lock down his fifth save. That sent a groan through an impressive Good Friday crowd of 39,547.
There were a few positives on the night for the Blue Jays.
Smoak hit his first homer of the season — Toronto’s first dinger in 38 innings — and the Blue Jays outhit Baltimore 10-9. Struggling catcher Russell Martin singled in the ninth and Devon Travis ended an 0-for-29 hitless streak with an RBI single in the frame.
“The one thing that’s encouraging about tonight is we got some hits,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “So that’s definitely a good thing.”
Wade Miley (1-0) threw six innings for the victory.