TORONTO _ In terms of personnel, this is a much different Orioles team than the one that failed to win a game at Rogers Centre this season in its first seven tries.
The result in Monday's series opener, however, was the same as the Orioles lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-3, to fall to 0-8 north of the border this season.
The last time the Orioles were in Toronto, last month in the first series after the All-Star break, they had just traded Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers as their roster overhaul had just begun.
The Orioles (37-88), now 51 games under .500 on the season, have lost 10 of 11 games against the Blue Jays (56-69) overall this year.
Right-hander Andrew Cashner (4-11) allowed five runs over six innings, and gave up a pair of home runs to designated hitter Kendrys Morales.
It was Morales' second home run, a three-run homer in Toronto's four-run fifth, that broke the game open in Cashner's third time through the Blue Jays order.
Cashner entered the fifth having allowed just one run on three hits _ including Morales' solo homer in the fourth. But No. 9 hitter Richard Urena's leadoff double in the fifth, a ball that tailed past right fielder Adam Jones and one-hopped the fence, turned the Blue Jays batting order over.
Two batters later, Kevin Pillar scored Urena with a ground-rule double down the left-field line. Cashner walked Justin Smoak, then elevated a 2-0 four-seamer that Morales sent into the second deck in right. Opponents are hitting .344 off Cashner the third time through the order.
Morales is 6-for-10 in his career against Cashner, with three of those hits being home runs.
The Orioles stranded eight base runners on the night, wasting several scoring opportunities against starter Marco Estrada (7-9). They put two on with two out in the second on singles by Tim Beckham and Craig Gentry, but No. 9 hitter Caleb Joseph struck out looking to end the inning.
They had the bases loaded with one out in the third, but came away with just one run on Chris Davis' sacrifice fly. And they had two on with two outs in the fourth before Jonathan Villar hit a sharp comebacker to Estrada to end that inning.
Part of the reason the Orioles failed to capitalize on all those base runners was because they were kept off-balance by Estrada's bread-and-butter pitch, his changeup. Estrada induced 10 swinging strikes on his changeup, which included three of his four strikeouts on the night.
The Orioles chased Estrada from the game three batters into the sixth inning after Renato Nunez's leadoff homer and Gentry's double. Gentry landed on third on Curtis Granderson's fielding error.
Joseph roped an RBI double into the right-center-field gap off reliever Ryan Tepera to cut the lead to 5-3.
In his third start since returning from the disabled list with a fractured rib, Gentry had his third three-hit game of the season.
The Orioles took two balls to the warning track in the eighth against reliever Tyler Clippard, but deep fly balls off the bats of Beckham and Gentry stayed in the park for harmless outs.
