BALTIMORE _ The Orioles could not have asked for much more than what starting pitcher Wade Miley gave them on Monday night, but it didn't matter because they could not figure out Toronto Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada.
Estrada is one of those guys that ties Orioles hitters in knots. He doesn't throw very hard, but he locates a lot of off-speed pitches and he lets guys get themselves out.
They managed just a solo home run by J.J. Hardy and now are looking four games up at the first-place Blue Jays after a 5-1 loss before 15,532 at Camden Yards.
Miley was coming off a solid start against the Washington Nationals and followed it up with a quality start against another good lineup. But his three runs allowed on five hits over seven innings is only good enough if you have modest run support. The Orioles cracked just four hits over seven-plus innings against Estrada (8-6).
Trouble is, Estrada might be the most beatable of the three starting pitchers scheduled to face the Orioles in this important series. They get left-hander J.A. Happ, who is 17-4, on Tuesday night and right-hander Aaron Sanchez, who is 12-2 with a 2.99 ERA, in the series finale.
Miley did what he could. He retired the first 10 batters he faced before faltering long enough in the fourth inning to give up a pair of runs on a home run by Josh Donaldson and a two-out RBI single by Troy Tulowitzki. He also allowed a leadoff homer to Jose Bautista in the sixth.
There weren't really any scoring opportunities against Estrada. The Orioles only once had two runners on base while he was on the mound and they had already squandered that opportunity before it developed. Estrada hit leadoff batter Matt Wieters with a pitch and threw three straight balls to designated hitter Pedro Alvarez.
With Hardy _ one of the club's most dependable hitters in the second half _ on deck and no one out, Alvarez might have been expected to turn the strike zone into a Rubik's Cube, but he swung at a borderline 3-0 pitch and popped up to third base. Nolan Reimold lined a single to left an out later, but there was no one in scoring position.
Obviously, there's no way to know what would have happened if Alvarez had taken that pitch, but the situation called for it.
The Blue Jays have been on an offensive roll. They battered the Minnesota Twins all last weekend, so the Orioles holding them to three runs through the first eight innings presented an opportunity that might not be there again this week.
Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez will try to pick up where he left off in a strong performance Thursday when he takes the mound Tuesday night.
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