When Aaron Hill's fourth-inning drive slammed off the camera well over the center-field wall for a two-run homer, Orioles starter Brad Bergesen pounded his fist into his glove before stepping back onto the Rogers Centre mound and getting a new ball.
He had to repeat that act in the fifth inning when Jose Bautista deposited a pitch just below the second deck in left-center field for a three-run homer, and again two batters later when Adam Lind's line drive just got over the right-field wall for a solo shot.
Such sequences are getting really old really quickly both for the Orioles, who are rightfully tired of watching their young starters melt down on a daily basis and for Bergesen, who simply can't get major league hitters out this season. In another troubling performance that could lead to his third demotion in a little more than three months, Bergesen was knocked around for a career-high eight runs in five-plus innings and the Orioles were beaten again by the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-5, in front of an announced 17,422.
"We just cannot continue to go down this path," interim manager Juan Samuel said. "Somebody has to step up and go deep in these games or those guys in the bullpen are going to need a new set of arms. We just can't continue to do that."
Samuel chose not to speak specifically about Bergesen's tenuous hold on a rotation spot, though he did make it clear that changes will have to be made in the starting rotation, where a new leak springs with every game.
If you take away Jeremy Guthrie's two second-half outings, the Orioles' rotation has worked just 41 1/3 innings in nine games, allowing 49 earned runs (10.67 ERA) and 64 hits. Only four times in 11 games since the All-Star break has an Orioles starter made it through six innings. During that span, Orioles starters have pitched 55 innings, while the bullpen has logged 47, including three from Matt Albers on Monday night.
"We have to come up with a solution. These guys are not getting it done," Samuel said. "If these guys don't get it done, we're going to have to do something or they're going to have to stick it out. We just can't continue to go down this road, stretching the bullpen as much as we are. We might just have to leave them out there to take lumps for later so these guys can get some rest down in the bullpen."
Entering the game, the Orioles were 0-9 against the Blue Jays this season and 0-7 on Mondays, a toxic mix that foretold a long and difficult night. For much of the evening, it was every bit as bad as you would imagine as Toronto built an 8-0 lead by the bottom of the fifth inning before the Orioles fought back to bring the potential tying run to the plate in the eighth inning.
Bergesen's latest poor outing and another loss — the Orioles are 2-9 since the All-Star break and 31-68 this season — marred the best offensive game of catcher Matt Wieters' young career. In his second game since being activated from the disabled list, Wieters hit two home runs (a second-deck blast to right field and a liner just over the wall in left) to give him eight on the season and the first multi-homer game of his career.
He also drove in three runs and walked twice. Luke Scott, named American League Player of the Week earlier in the day, continued his torrid stretch with a two-run shot, his fifth homer in the past eight games.
The Orioles, playing without first baseman Ty Wigginton, who started serving a two-game suspension Monday night, pounded out 10 hits, but all of it seemed an afterthought to Bergesen's struggles.
"There's not really a whole lot to say. They got to me today," Bergesen said. "It's not one I'm happy about. I'm just going to put it behind me."
In 10 losses to the Blue Jays this season, the Orioles have been outscored 57-21, including 25-8 in four losses at Rogers Centre. They also have been out-homered 21-4 in the season series.
On Monday night, the Blue Jays had seven extra-base hits, including three home runs, by the fifth inning. The most extra-base hits the Orioles had allowed in a game all season was seven, and that happened the previous day as part of the Minnesota Twins' 19-hit attack at Camden Yards.
"We couldn't get the ball to consistently sink. He'd go and throw a good pitch, and then he'd pull one across," Wieters said of Bergesen. "It's just a matter of finding a rhythm to where he's consistently throwing that sinker. This team hits mistakes, and they hit mistakes for home runs. You have to be really careful."
Bergesen (3-9) has lost five straight outings and seven straight decisions, and he remains winless since May 12, a span of 10 starts. After surrendering 10 hits Monday night, he has given up 39 hits over his past 22 1/3 innings.
With Bergesen sporting a 6.95 ERA, the logical move would be to send him back down to Triple-A in time for his next start. But it might not been as easy a decision as it seems because none of the young starters in the Orioles' rotation is pitching well.
Right-hander Chris Tillman, who like Bergesen has ridden a shuttle from Norfolk to Baltimore, was knocked around in his last outing for the Tides. That might leave prospect Zach Britton, who is also in the Norfolk rotation, as the top candidate to be promoted to the Orioles' rotation.
"At this point, at the end of July with two months left, I'm still going to work on things. But from a personal standpoint, you never want to go down," Bergesen said. "If it happens, it happens. It's something I'm going to have to live with. You can't argue the move if that's the case."