TORONTO _ The Baltimore Orioles' final road trip began with a game that featured some intriguing recent trends, but in the end encapsulated much of their season.
After overcoming an early five-run deficit, they wasted three leads, a huge day from rookie center fielder Austin Hays and another go-ahead home run from Chris Davis in an 11-10 loss in 15 innings to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Orioles' third extra-innings game in 10 days left them with the same sour taste as the previous two, having watched leads evaporate in both of those before falling in the additional frames.
Monday's final blow came shortly after midnight in Toronto, with Anthony Alford hitting his first career home run off Ryan Eades in the bottom of the 15th. The Orioles led 7-6 entering the bottom of the seventh, 9-7 entering the bottom of the ninth and 10-9 entering the bottom of the 12th, but they were unable to finish the game off with a victory.
Hays hit two homers for his first multihomer game and became the first rookie since RBIs became an official stat in 1920 to have at least five of them, a steal and an outfield assist in a game.
After Davis delivered a go-ahead home run in the Orioles' home finale Sunday, he declared, "I know it's not the last time I'm going to do it."
He meant that statement in reference to Camden Yards, but he didn't wait long before again supplying the Orioles a lead with a home run. For the first time since July 7 and 8, 2018, Davis homered in consecutive games, with his solo shot on a 12th-inning fastball from Jordan Romano going out to center field and breaking a 9-all deadlock. It was the game's ninth homer by either team.
Davis has 12 home runs in 2019, four fewer than his 2018 total with five games left to match it.
Making his second start for the Orioles after a strong August for Triple-A Norfolk and a couple of solid major league relief appearances, Chandler Shephard allowed six earned runs in only three innings. The Orioles went down 5-0 early on a three-run home run from Randal Grichuk and back-to-back home runs from Brandon Drury and Jonathan Davis in the second.
That left the Orioles' bullpen with six innings of regulation to cover. Evan Phillips pitched two perfect innings behind Shepherd before Miguel Castro helped him work out of the sixth. After the Orioles rallied to take the lead with four home runs, including two by Hays, Paul Fry surrendered a game-tying home run to Cavan Biggio before Mychal Givens retired Grichuk and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to end the inning.
Jonathan Villar and Hays, who hit back-to-back home runs in a four-run rally in the fifth, staked the Orioles to a two-run lead with consecutive RBI singles in the eighth. Branden Kline held onto that lead with a clean eighth, but Shawn Armstrong struggled to finish the game. He hit the first man he faced and struck out the next before allowing hits to three of the next four Blue Jays, with Guerrero's single tying the game.
Dillon Tate and David Hess pitched a clean inning each before Davis' go-ahead homer. Hess went back out for the 12th, which began with Guerrero reaching on a two-base error by third baseman Rio Ruiz, who had supplied a 7-6 lead in the fifth with a two-run shot. A walk and hit batter loaded the bases for Davis, who hit a game-tying sacrifice fly. Hess pitched out of it to get the game to the 13th and has pitched 8 1/3 hitless innings at the Rogers Centre this season.
