TORONTO — In the just more than two weeks since the deadline deal that sent All-Star closer Jorge López to the Minnesota Twins, the Orioles’ bullpen has largely avoided melting down. The offense, meanwhile, has had its struggles of late, though it’s unclear whether the freshly traded Trey Mancini would have been a solvent.
Both absences were felt in Wednesday afternoon’s 6-1 loss to finish a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays. With Mancini playing for the Houston Astros and count-working rookies Adley Rutschman and Terrin Vavra on the bench, Toronto right-hander Ross Stripling efficiently took a perfect game bid into the seventh inning, the second time in four games Baltimore went into the seventh without a base runner.
Half an inning after Cedric Mullins spoiled the effort with a single up the middle, the Blue Jays (62-54) struck for all of their runs. Dillon Tate and Félix Bautista, who served as López’s primary right-handed setup men before he was traded, had both pitched in the first two games of the series, each an Orioles (61-56) victory. With manager Brandon Hyde yet to use a reliever three days in a row, he had Joey Krehbiel replace Austin Voth after the latter’s six shutout innings.
