Hess’ strong start, Mancini’s five RBIs help O’s end eight-game skid
Maybe there is something about the free-swinging Toronto Blue Jays lineup David Hess has faced in his past two outings that suits him well. Or maybe the Orioles righthander has found a comfortable combination of fastball command and confidence in his breaking ball.
Whatever the reason, Hess appears to have found a way to overcome his midseason struggles through the dog days of August in the Orioles’ lost season, pitching six scoreless innings against the Blue Jays in the Orioles’ 7-0 win Monday night at Camden Yards.
The win, which ended the Orioles’ eight-game losing streak, was just their second in 14 games against the Blue Jays this season. Last week, the Orioles concluded their road schedule in Toronto 0-10
Hess, who recorded his third straight quality start, has had success against the Blue Jays. In his past two starts, he’s held Toronto to just one run over 13 innings.
The Orioles (38-94), who recorded their sixth shutout win of the season, broke open a scoreless game with a four-run sixth inning against Blue Jays starter Sam Gaviglio, capped by Trey Mancini’s three-run homer to right-center field.
Mancini added a two-run double in the seventh off reliever Danny Barnes. His five RBIs matched a career high.
Hess (3-8) was coming off an outing in which he held the Blue Jays to one run — coming on hot-hitting slugger Kendrys Morales’ solo homer — over seven innings with a career-high seven strikeouts Wednesday at Rogers Centre. In that game, he retired the first 12 Toronto batters he faced.
On Monday, Hess retired nine of the first 10, but gave up some hard-hit balls — a leadoff double in the fourth inning by Billy McKinney that came off the bat at 103 mph and Russell Martin’s one-out double that thumped off the top of the left-center field fence, missing a home run by just a few feet. Neither runner scored. The Blue Jays stranded six runners — including four in scoring position — against Hess and were 0-for-6 against him with runners in scor- ing position.
Hess recorded five strikeouts, having faith in his four-seamer to get ahead in counts and setting up his strikeouts with a slider that recorded five swinging strikes.
In the fourth, Hess stranded McKinney at third, and in the sixth, he escaped a jam with runners at second and third with one out after a four-pitch walk to Morales and a two-out double by Randal Grichuk. But Hess induced an inning-ending groundout from Aledmys Díaz to end the inning.
The Orioles’ sixth-inning rally was started by a leadoff single by Cedric Mullins and a bunt single by Jonathan Villar. Gaviglio intentionally walked Adam Jones to load the bases for Chris Davis, who hit into an RBI fielder’s choice to break the scoreless tie.
Mancini hit a 1-1 slider off the top off the grounds crew shed in right-center field to put the Orioles up 4-0. After struggling at the plate for most of the season, Mancini is hitting .296 with seven homers in his past 30 games.