TORONTO _ These streaking Baltimore Orioles are a team devoid of much major league experience. What little they have is concentrated in a few players, and several of those helped them to an improbable fourth straight victory Tuesday, 2-1 over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Infielder Jonathan Villar broke a scoreless tie with an RBI triple in the Orioles' two-run sixth inning, then scored on a single by the hot-hitting Trey Mancini to help six scoreless innings from veteran starter Andrew Cashner hold up for his first win of 2019.
Before Villar snapped the deadlock, Cashner was nearly replicating the previous night's mastery of starter David Hess, who didn't allow a hit in 6 1/3 innings.
Cashner's first hit allowed came in the fourth inning. He quickly erased it with a double play, and didn't have much trouble until the sixth, when the Blue Jays loaded the bases with two outs and got nothing from it.
With six shutout innings, Cashner's game score (72) equaled his best in an Orioles uniform, matching what he was able to accomplish last April 10 against the Blue Jays.
Villar's involvement on the day demonstrated his importance to the Orioles in several ways. He slid over to shortstop from his traditional spot at second base to give rookie Richie Martin a day off and allow Hanser Alberto to get his first start. Alberto ended up with a pair of hits to reward the move. Villar defended well at second base, too, but his value on this day was mostly with his bat.
He doubled in the fourth inning before being picked off at second base when he didn't slide back into the bag and stumbled off the base, but made up for it by tripling down the right-field line with Dwight Smith Jr. on first base and chasing him home, providing the game's first breakthrough.
Mancini scored Villar in the next at-bat, and a combination of Cashner, Paul Fry and Miguel Castro made it stand up to put the Orioles in position to sweep the Blue Jays before returning to Baltimore for Thursday's home opener against the New York Yankees.
