BALTIMORE _ The Orioles have suffered some discouraging losses over the course of this painful season, but it's hard to imagine any of them comparing to the carnage that took place on Wednesday night.
The O's busted out to a six-run lead in the early innings and seemed to stave off a seventh-inning comeback attempt by the Toronto Blue Jays, only to suffer another major bullpen implosion on the way to a 11-10 loss before what was left of an announced crowd of 9,066 at Camden Yards.
The Jays came back from a four-run deficit in the top of the ninth inning against right-hander Miguel Castro, who allowed a dramatic two-out grand slam to right fielder Randal Grichuk as part of a six-run meltdown that sabotaged the young reliever's late-season resurgence.
It doesn't get much worse than that, or did it?
The Orioles actually came back to score a run in the bottom of the inning and had the potential tying and winning runs in scoring position with one out, but the two guys who did most of the offensive damage earlier in the game could not get it done at the end.
Jonathan Villar popped out and Trey Mancini bounced out to second base to end the game.
On the night after manager Brandon Hyde could not conceal his disappointment with the clumsy performance of his team in Tuesday's series opener, the Orioles appeared to get the message.
They came back on Wednesday and looked like a completely different club, at least for the first four innings.
If you hadn't already noticed, this is a young, rebuilding team and consistency has always been in short supply. The O's depended entirely on Mancini the night before and spread the wealth all through the lineup on the way to what seemed certain to be their 50th victory of the season.
Mancini was right in the middle of it again, delivering a two-run double in the second inning that accounted for his 89th and 90th RBIs of the season, but the Orioles offense was already in full swing by that time.
Anthony Santander, Rio Ruiz and Austin Hays had rattled off consecutive two-out doubles in the first inning to score two runs against Jays starter Clay Buchholz. Mancini's second-inning double gave Orioles starter Dylan Bundy more breathing room, before Villar and Santander homered in the fourth to give the O's a 7-1 lead.
It was Santander's 19th homer of the season and it appeared to portend a rare blowout, especially after Bundy had shaken off some early control problems to allow just one run and strike out eight over five innings. But in this second straight season 100-plus losses, things are seldom that simple.
The Orioles would have to sweat this one out as the bullpen helped usher the Jays back into the game. Tanner Scott came in to spell Bundy and allowed a run on three singles in the sixth and the Jays teed off on reliever Shawn Armstrong in the seventh.
Armstrong had come on to get the final out of the sixth, then came back to allow a leadoff single to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a walk to catcher Reese McGuire before center fielder Teoscar Hernandez hit a mammoth three-run homer well into the center field bleachers.
Suddenly, it was a two-run game and the small crowd had to be having flashbacks to Tuesday night's late-inning meltdown by Mychal Givens.
This time, it looked like it would be different. The Orioles added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh on a sacrifice fly by DJ Stewart and Villar scored another on a sacrifice fly by Mancini in the eighth to re-establish a seemingly comfortable lead.
In between, Givens bounced back with a clean eighth inning before Castro came on to pitch the ninth.
Castro struck out Hernandez to open the inning, then wrapped two walks around a single to load the bases. He struck out Bo Bichette and the Jays were down to their last out before Cavan Biggio singled in a run and brought Grichuk to the plate.
Mancini remains on a major late-season roll. It was the fourth time in the last six games that he has driven in at least three runs. Over that span he's batting .407 with 11 hits, four home runs and 14 RBIs.
Villar also had a huge night. He had three hits, including his 23rd home run, and would have had another home run if Jays left fielder Derek Fisher had not reached over the fence in the first inning to prevent it.
