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The Baltimore Orioles got off to an early 3-0 lead off of Manny Machado‘s two-RBI double in the third inning. Those runs were manufactured in part by Chris Dickerson and Nate McLouth both getting on base and Buck Showalter calling for a double steal (which was successful). Chris Davis led off the fourth with a solo homer, and the O’s appeared on their way. However the second time through the order Toronto appeared to figure out Gausman just a bit. Adam Lind led off the last of the fourth with a double, and J.P. Arencibia doubled him home. Emilio Bonifacio later sacrificed Brett Lawrie home to cut the Birds’ lead to 3-2.

However it was the last of the fifth that did Gausman in. After recording the first two outs quickly, Adam Lind got on base with a two-out single, which was followed up by an Arencibia home run. That wiped out the quality start, and it wiped out the Orioles’ lead. Gausman would retire the side and that would be his last inning of work. However a four-run sixth inning ultimately did in the Orioles. Troy Patton put two runners on, and Pedro Strop walked the first hitter he saw to load the bases. Juan Encarnacion picked that moment to take advantage of Strop’s control (or lack thereof), and served up a grand slam for the Toronto fans.

The good news is that the Orioles did make a slight comeback attempt. After Hardy scored on a sac fly in the seventh inning, Nick Markakis and Adam Jones hit back-to-back homers to lead off the eighth. While that brought the Orioles to within 8-6, the issue of course was that they were solo home runs. Toronto pitcher Brandon Morrow can probably live with giving up solo home runs, especially with a four-run lead. (Although Morrow was pulled after the Jones home run and MASN cameras caught him having a bit of a meltdown in the dugout.)

Toronto’s four-run eighth inning sealed the game, and the Orioles could probably stand to take a few notes in adding on insurance runs. It’s important to note that while all four of those runs were charged to T.J. McFarland, he can’t shoulder the blame for it in total. With a runner on base, Jose Bautista reached on a rare J.J. Hardy error. A moment later we saw another rarity: a Matt Wieters passed ball. Bautista was safe at second base, and Gose (the runner on second) came around and tried to score. Home plate umpire Tony Randazzo ruled that he alluded Wieters’ tag, and replays were inconclusive. My initial gut reaction was that he was out, however it was a bang-bang play. An RBI-single and a sacrifice fly-RBI later, and Toronto closed out their 12-6 victory.

What Orioles’ fans should take away from this game is that Gausman showed a lot of promise. He ran into some struggles for sure, and those are things that him and pitching coach Rick Adair will have to work through. That’s baseball, and it’s part of learning for a young pitcher. As I said, the one thing that I took away from all of this was Gausman’s ability to change speeds. That’s something I feel will guide him through his career if he can keep it up. Some of his pitches flattened out a bit in the fourth and fifth innings, however he had Toronto hitters guessing in the first three.

The series continues tonight, with Chris Tillman on the mound for the Birds. Tillman of course lost his previous start against Tampa last weekend at Camden Yards, however he turned in a quality start and didn’t pitch poorly. The tables will turn a bit tonight as Toronto will debut Sean Nolin on the mound tonight, who will be making his first big league start.

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Quality starting pitching doesn’t hurt either, and Jason Hammel won his first game at the yard in 2013. Hammel’s line: 6.2 IP 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K. Hammel also got run support that hasn’t always been there, and right from the get-go at that. Nick Markakis’ solo home run in the last of the first got things started, and that was followed up by an Adam Jones single to center field. That brought Chris Davis to the plate, who’s two-run homer put the Orioles ahead 3-0. The key besides quality starting pitching is that the Orioles jumped on New York early in the game. That set a certain tone to things, and New York was in effect playing from behind all night. When you have these games where your starter is pitching well but you can’t score runs that ultimately puts a lot of pressure on your starting pitcher as the game wears on and at some point he potentially cracks.

One thing I found interesting is that NY manager Joe Girardi lifted starter Hiroki Kuroda in the last of the third with an apparent injury. He had been grazed by a ball earlier in the game, and they later announced that he had a bruised calf. However was Girardi looking for an excuse to change pitchers and to give his reliever more time to warm up? That seemed to be the consensus without anyone actually coming out and saying it. Nevertheless, Kuroda put runners at the corners in the third before departing with the O’s leading 3-1. Matt Wieters sent a homer to center off of reliever Preston Claiborne, and the Birds had a 6-1 lead. Curtis Granderson and David Adams would add a solo homers for New York to close out the scoring in the Orioles’ 6-3 victory.

While Darren O’Day gave up Adams’ solo homer in the ninth, the Orioles bullpen also looked strong. So combine what appeared to be the Jason Hammel of 2012 with the Orioles’ ‘pen of 2012 (the Orioles only used Brian Matusz and O’Day), and you have a pretty decent combination. Many people seemed to think that the season was well on it’s way to being over going into this series and after the Orioles lost game one in dramatic fashion. However as I’ve said so many times, you’ll go through peaks and valleys in 162 games. So at the very least the Birds have received a stay of execution in taking two-of-three from New York. At best they’ve corrected and/or figured out a few things.

Tonight the Birds head north of the border for the first time in 2013 to open up a four-game series with Toronto (and a six-game road trip). They’ll face Brandon Morrow, who was non-decisioned against the Orioles in Toronto’s 6-5 victory on April 24th. However the spotlight will be on Orioles’ starter Kevin Gausman, who will be called up from double-A Bowie and will make his major league debut. As we all know, the O’s drafted Gausman fourth overall out of LSU in last year’s draft. He was 2-4 at Bowie this year, with a 3.11 ERA in eight starts. He’ll be facing a Toronto team that’s starting to heat up; they’ve won five of their last six home games, and rallied to beat Tampa yesterday in ten innings with Jose Bautista driving in all of the team’s runs.

The Gausman move can be analyzed until the cows come home, however the

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fact is that the Orioles are making the move. They feel that Gausman’s ready to come to this level, and they aren’t in the business of keeping guys in the minors for extended periods of time for no apparent reason. My concern would be the fact that if he does struggle and is at some point sent back down, his major league clock will have already started. However that’s a risk that the Orioles have proven they’re willing to take, most recently with Manny Machado last season. Not only does this send a message to the fan base in that the Orioles want to win now, but it also sends a message to the rest of the league, who have been trying to strong arm Gausman away from the O’s for the past year. There wasn’t one trade that was proposed where Gausman’s name didn’t come up. Once he’s thrown a pitch in a game he’ll cease to be a “prospect,” so maybe the rest of the league will stop asking about him! One interesting thing to note, Gausman’s (presumed) second big league start should come next Tuesday in Washington. How many American League pitchers have had to pick up a bat in their second big league start?! Let the Kevin Gausman era in Birdland begin.

Starter Miguel Gonzalez came off the DL for tonight’s game, and appeared to be no worse for the wear after suffering with a blister on his pitching thumb. Gonzalez’s line: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 5 K. Gonzalez was locating his fastball early, and recorded outs at will. However Travis Hafner continued his hot series against the Orioles with an RBI-single in the top of the first as New York took an early lead. However Chris Dickerson, playing in center field in place of Adam Jones (who was DHing due to soreness), recorded his second big league home run in the last of the third to tie the game at one. Yet part of the Orioles’ problem of late has been that once they respond it seems that the opposition is allowed to re-take the lead in the immediate aftermath. And that’s what NY did, with Vernon Wells leading off the fourth with a double and then scoring on another Hafner RBI-single.

This game was somewhat of a coming out party for Chris Dickerson however, and he single-handedly kept the Orioles in the game. Following NY taking the lead. However after the Orioles’ second run, the pace of the game slowed to a sloth-like trot. Tommy Hunter pitched two flawless innings, which as I’ve said before is something that might go unnoticed in the final game story. However Hunter has been lights out for the Orioles when he’s been called upon, and I also feel like he’s saved quite a few of his fellow bullpen pitchers as the past couple of weeks have progressed. That’s been huge in terms of guys not being incredibly tired as time has gone on.

In using the term “buh-bye” in the title of this column, there are a couple of references there. First and foremost, McLouth’s walk off home won it for the Birds. That ended a six-game losing streak, that was almost embarrassing at times for this team. This win got the monkey off of the Orioles’ backs, and now they can come back to the park tomorrow without the pressure of the losing streak hanging over their heads and just play. However the “buh-bye” is also for the fact that Jim Johnson was able to have a positive outing, bidding adieu at least to struggle after struggle. Johnson pitched a 1-2-3 tenth inning, and thus picked up the win in the game.

The fact that Johnson was in the game in that situation spoke volumes about Buck Showalter and how much he trusts his players. You’d be remiss not to at least acknowledge Johnson’s struggles of late, and the fact that Showalter sent him out there in that situation should tell us something. It should also send a message to the most fickle of fickle fans in that we have to have patience with players and with teams. There’s going to be adversity over the course of 162 games, just as there’s adversity in life. But you have to have faith in people’s overall record, and thus have faith in the fact that people will revert to their normal form at some point. Showalter showed a lot of confidence in his beleaguered closer, and it paid off. As a reliever you aren’t overly concerned with your win/loss record because the idea is that you want to hold the score where it is. However the fact that Johnson was credited with the win has to give him some confidence.

The Orioles will culminate their three-game series with New York tonight at Camden Yards with Jason Hammel on the mound. Hammel of course is coming off of a lackluster outing against Tampa last week, but is 5-2 overall on the season. He’ll be opposed by Hiroki Kuroda of New York. Obviously the big news following tonight’s game was that the O’s will recall pitcher Kevin Gausman from double-A Bowie to make tomorrow’s start in Toronto. This is an interesting turn of events to say the least, as Gausman will be making his first big league start (and his major league debut at that). For more on that, read the column that was posted early this morning by Birds Watcher staff writer Margaret Hooper.