Mountcastle, Norby bring the lumber while Burnes cruises as Orioles beat Jays, 10-1

The Orioles blasted their way to an easy win behind seven one-run innings from Burnes and a bunch of homers.

Death, taxes, and Orioles home runs. One night after blasting off for four long balls, the Orioles took an easy Game Two behind staff ace Corbin Burnes—who settled into autopilot over seven one-run innings—and a trio of home runs, two from Ryan Mountcastle, continuing his career-long romp at Rodgers Centre, and an eighth-inning shot by rookie Connor Norby, his first career MLB hit and home run in one swing.

Reportedly on Monday Toronto manager John Schneider crabbily said, of the Orioles, “They’re not the ’27 Yankees.”

Ratio.

Despite this game eventually turning into a cakewalk, for two brief innings, the 31-year-old Trevor Richards made the “opener” concept look plausible, retiring six consecutive O’s hitters on a lot of breaking pitches.

The Orioles had to settle, instead, for a mere conventional “starter”-starter in Corbin Burnes, but Baltimore’s ace was—once again—exactly as good as expected. He struggled briefly in the second and third innings, allowing a pair of baserunners in each, but he escaped damage each time. Back to Burnes in a second.

But quickly the opener model showed its dark side: a lot of people have to be good at once for it to work. So, back in the top half of the third, the slow-throwing righty Richards was replaced by flamethrowing southpaw Génesis Cabrera, who immediately plunked Colton Cowser in the back. A stolen base for Cowser was promptly called back as the home plate ump called out James McCann for catcher’s inference when McCann stumbled slightly on the follow-through of his swing. (A 10-year catcher out on that call? Shame! Shame! Shame!)

The bad call stung a bit less when Gunnar Henderson worked a southpaw-on-southpaw walk, and then Adley Rutschman, hitting from the right side, served a two-out RBI single to center to score Cowser. 1-0, Good Birds.

That would be Cabrera’s last batter. Enter Bowden Francis, a right-hander who looks like Tyler Wells with an evil villain mustache. Enter, too, Ryan Mountcastle, slayer of Blue Jays and owner of a .944 career OPS in the month of June. When in Toronto, said the Orioles social media account, and that means, get all of a juicy curveball to make it 4-0 Baltimore:

This game never got close again. By the fourth inning, Burnes was starting to lock into Terminator mode. He retired twelve in a row at one point, and had allowed just three hits, all singles, when George Springer took him deep in the seventh inning.

But at that point, the game was already 8-1, because the O’s had struck again against Francis in the fifth inning. Gunnar doubled and advanced to third on a balk. Rutschman, now batting from the left side, delivered for a second time in an RBI spot, singling to right to score Henderson.

Cue the Killer of Blue Jays again. On this hittable fastball, Mountcastle cracked the game wide open, making it 7-0 Baltimore on what, at 443 feet, may have been the Orioles’ longest home run this season. (I don’t have this in front of me, but if anyone wants to confirm that, please do!)

Back to Burnes. He’d just surrendered that Springer home run with two outs in the sixth inning when Brandon Hyde came out of the dugout to do his customary stroll out to the mound. That would do it for Burnes… oh wait— no. Told “hell, no, I’ve got this” (or something to that effect), Hyde slapped his ace on the bum and turned right around. I guess when you’re the staff ace, you get to tell your manager when you’re coming out of the game. Burnes got the last out that inning, and exited after seven strong innings with just four hits and the one run allowed. He’s 6-2 with a 2.26 ERA in 13 starts. Ace stuff.

The Orioles, meanwhile, had one final trick up their sleeve. Facing Toronto’s Nate Pearson with one on, one out in the eighth, Connor Norby blasted his first MLB hit, first home run, first RBI—and punched his ticket to his first trip to the Hydration Station. That made it 10-1, and suddenly this was a whooping. What could be nicer on a trip to Toronto?

Power, pitching, defense and hits up and down the lineup. At 39-20, Baltiomre is a season-high nineteen games over .500. Everything is coming up Orioles right now.