TORONTO _ The Orioles' three-game road winning streak ended Wednesday night at Rogers Centre, their bats silenced by Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman in a 4-0 loss.
Stroman, who was coming off one of his worst outings of the season, held the Orioles scoreless through 7 2/3 innings while limiting them to five hits. Stroman retired 17 of the last 20 batters he faced, and none of the three base runners he allowed reached second base.
The Orioles, who dropped back below .500 with the loss (38-39), did not have a single runner in scoring position against Stroman and had just one all night.
One night after the Orioles pulled out a rare low-scoring win, they had no answers for Stroman, who leaned on a two-seam sinking fastball that found the lower part of the strike zone. He owned the glove side of the plate with a precise slider that had the Orioles chasing and frustrated.
Stroman, who allowed a season-high seven runs in his previous start last Thursday in Texas, yielded just two singles and a walk after Caleb Joseph's leadoff single in the third.
He struck out eight Orioles on the night, getting 19 strike calls on his 74 two-seamers.
The Orioles recorded many swings and misses on his 20 sliders that tailed away to right-handed hitters.
Wade Miley lasted five innings _ marking the 16th time in the past 18 games that an Orioles starter has failed to get through six innings _ allowing four runs, three of them earned, on six hits and four walks.
Miley limited damage through his first three inning of work after Jose Bautista hit his second delivery of the night over the right-center-field fence to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. In the second and third innings, he erased leadoff base runners with double-play balls that created harmless innings.
But in the fourth, Toronto tagged Miley for three runs, though two of them could have been avoided with more heady defensive play.
Miley opened the fourth hanging a sinker to Justin Smoak, who hit the pitch an estimated 430 feet onto the center-field batter's eye.
Miley created his own jam after that loading the bases with out in the inning on the heels of a walk and two singles, but the Orioles nearly got out of the inning.
With two outs, shortstop Paul Janish snagged Bautista's 110-mph grounder, but instead of going to first, Janish went to second, where there wasn't a play with Kevin Pillar bearing down on the bag.
Second baseman Jonathan Schoop threw to first as he went across the second-base bag, but his momentum carried him to a wild throw that escaped first baseman Trey Mancini and allowed two runs to score.
Right-hander Alec Asher entered Wednesday having posted a 6.23 ERA in four appearances since returning to the bullpen, but he recaptured the success he's previously had against the Blue Jays with three scoreless innings in relief of Miley.
Asher did not allow a hit after he allowed a leadoff single to former Oriole Steve Pearce on the first batter he faced, facing the minimum number of batters after that base runner was erased on a double play two batters later.
Asher has a 0.73 ERA in 12 1/3 innings against the Blue Jays this season, which includes a 6 1/3-inning, one-run quality start at Rogers Centre on April 15 in his first spot start of the season.
