It was hard to pick out what aspect of the Orioles' latest defeat, an 8-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, was worse: the starting pitching of Brad Bergesen or the defense.
Bergesen allowed four six runs (four earned) on six hits and three walks, and needed a staggering 83 pitches to make it through three innings. Meanwhile, the Orioles defense made two errors and could have been easily charged with four.
First baseman Derrek Lee's error in the first led to a two-run inning. Third baseman Mark Reynolds and catcher Matt Wieters both took turns mishandling throws that would have led to outs, prolonging the third inning long enough for Toronto to score four runs. Reynolds then failed to catch Wieters' ill-advised pickoff throw in the fifth, bringing home a run.
"We had two sure outs we should have had, and some things that we have to do better, but we're just trying to get the [starter] to stay a little deeper in the game," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "If we do that, we like our chances, like we have all year. But it hasn't been the case. It's just been such an unknown of what our starting pitcher is going to do for us. Guys go out there and get after it. A lot of guys having good swings and good at-bats, but you have to play on all sides of the ball, including the pitching and the defense."
The best at-bats for the Orioles were once again delivered by shortstop J.J. Hardy, who rebounded from his 0-for-4 with four strikeout performance on Wednesday to go three-for-five with a double and two solo homers.
"It's good to see J.J. Hardy leave," Toronto manager John Farrell said. "He had a heck of a series."
Hardy had two multi-homer games in the series and now has 18 homers for the season. Adam Jones added two hits and two RBIs, and Vladimir Guerrero homered for the first time since July 6. But none of that could make up for an awful performance defensively, and another bad effort by Bergesen, who had his shortest start of the season.
Bergesen's night was encapsulated by the third inning when he got two quick outs, and then quickly got ahead 0-2 on Edwin Encarnacion. However, Encarnacion hit a home run, as did Eric Thames, who came up next. That started a stretch where five straight Blue Jays reached base as Toronto scored four runs in the inning to take a 6-2 lead.
"Obviously, you look at the earned runs, but 80-something pitches in three innings, that's not going to work," Showalter said. "It's disappointing. We had an 0-2 count and two outs [in the third] and nobody on and next thing you know, he's given up runs that were a dagger for us. His pitches didn't have a whole lot of depth to them tonight and they put a lot of good swings on them."
