BALTIMORE — If there was ever a time for Orioles first baseman Ryan Mountcastle to break out of a slump that has stretched from early July into August, it was Monday versus the Toronto Blue Jays.
There’s no other team Mountcastle has found more success against, this season or over his career. And despite a .170 batting average and a .435 OPS in his past 26 games entering Monday — a span that didn’t include a home run — the blast off Mountcastle’s bat in the third inning seemed to be almost an inevitability. The ball flew over the new left field wall for his fourth homer against Toronto this season in just five games.
When he got back to the dugout, home run chain placed around his neck, he picked up the large orange ‘O’ at the end of the gold links and examined it. He hadn’t worn it in some time.
Mountcastle’s homer was part of a revitalized offensive display for several Orioles in a 7-4 win at Camden Yards in the first game of what could be a crucial series against a fellow wild-card contender from the American League East.
The Orioles (57-52) have played the Blue Jays (60-49), who hold the top of three wild-card spots, just four times entering Monday. They’ll face Toronto — a team they trail by three games — 14 more times this season.
In his career, Mountcastle has a .356 average and a 1.131 OPS against Toronto. This season alone, he’s driven in nine runs against the Blue Jays. There’s no qualified batter with a better career mark against Toronto in at least 125 plate appearances than Mountcastle.
The late run Mountcastle plated with a single in the eighth inning provided some breathing room for right-hander Félix Bautista, who completed a four-out save after bailing out Dillon Tate and Joey Krehbiel, who combined to allow two runs in a shaky eighth inning that cut the Orioles lead to 6-4.
Bautista allowed the first two Blue Jays in the ninth to reach before he stuck out Teoscar Hernandez and got Bo Bichette to ground into a game-ending double play to earn his fifth save.
Right-hander Jordan Lyles gave up two homers — doubling the number of long balls he’s allowed at Camden Yards this season — but a three-run homer from Ramón Urías in the first and solo homers from Anthony Santander, Austin Hays and Mountcastle were enough to propel Baltimore to its sixth win in its last seven games.
No injured list needed
Before Hays returned to the lineup Monday, the Orioles outfielder had to test whether normal throwing and swinging would exacerbate the oblique tightness that forced him to miss the past four games.
“We were able to test it the last couple days,” Hays said. “It responded well.”
The oblique tightness held Hays out of five of the previous six games, but he wanted to avoid a trip to the 10-day injured list — because he wanted to get back on the field as soon as he was fully healthy.
Hays’ return was notable, as was his swing in the bottom of the sixth. He connected on a four-seam fastball from right-hander Trent Thorton and launched it an estimated 426 feet to deep left field.
Entering the game, Hays held a .542 OPS since the beginning of July, during which he’s battled nagging injuries. Like Mountcastle, Hays’ return to form was welcome.
Around the horn
— Infielder Jonathan Araúz said he expects to be out another two weeks after fracturing his finger on July 25, and he figured he would return to Triple-A Norfolk for a few games on rehab. Araúz fractured his right middle finger on a slide into second base on a rare start last month and has been on the 10-day injured list since. “I hope I can swing this week, a couple throws,” he said, adding that he didn’t require surgery on the finger.
