Blue Jays Bombard Orioles, Beginning Crucial Season Series vs. Baltimore

The team with the best record against the Orioles has won the AL East in each of the last three full seasons.

Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Orioles aren’t free wins anymore, at least not on paper.

A few long-awaited prospects have finally arrived in Maryland and more are on the way. After four straight seasons of under 55 wins, the O’s shouldn’t be complete pushovers anymore. But in a division that currently boasts four squads in a playoff spot, they’re still the easiest wins in the East, and it showed on Monday.

With a seven-run fifth inning and the latest Alek Manoah masterclass, the Blue Jays slowly pummelled Baltimore into submission in an 11-1 win. Victories over the Orioles have been surprisingly crucial for AL East playoff hopes in recent years, and Toronto did exactly what they’ll need to do against the division’s weakest team on Monday.

Baltimore has been the AL East’s punching bag for a while now, and whatever team punches hardest usually ends up on top. The team with the best record against the Orioles has won the division in each of the last three full seasons, with the Rays taking the title with an 18-1 record against Baltimore in 2022. No AL East champion has had a full-season win rate below 84% against the O’s since 2017.

The Yankees are 9-4 against Baltimore already, with over 20% of their league-leading wins coming against the O's early this year. The Blue Jays have some catching up to do, so they started the Orioles portion of their ’22 schedule with a loud shellacking.

In 18 pitches, the Jays cracked the game from a 2-0 lead to a nine-run bombardment in the fifth inning. Raimel Tapia soared around the bases, Cavan Biggio coasted into third with a stand-up triple, and five different Blue Jays drove in runs during the bat-around slugfest.

"Once we got to like seven it was like alright, enough," Manoah said. "The second pitching change was like okay... But no, I mean that offense can do that any given night."

Paint the 11-run explosion over Manoah’s six innings of one-hit ball, and the Jays found themselves the recipe for an easy W. After offering two free passes to Baltimore hitters in the first frame, Manoah locked in, cutting up the opposing lineup with a dominant sinker, slider mix. The only hit he allowed was a 74.6 mile per hour bloop that fell harmlessly onto the shallow outfield turf.

Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

With seven strikeouts and six scoreless innings, the 24-year-old starter dropped his ERA to 1.67 in Toronto's win, the lowest mark in the American League. Manoah entered Monday's game with an ERA less than a third the size of his opponent's (Kyle Bradish's 6.45 ERA) and their marks trended in opposite directions in the Blue Jays' win.

"[Manoah] gets tougher when he has to, makes big pitches when he has to," manager Charlie Montoyo said. "That's why, he's probably, right now, one of the best pitchers in baseball."

It was a mismatch on paper, but the games don't always play out this way. Last season, the Jays went 14-5 against Baltimore (a 120-win pace), but it wasn’t even enough to make the playoffs. Toronto's 33-15 record against the O's over the last three seasons is still worse than that of New York and Tampa Bay's.

The Jays will start off 1-0 against Baltimore this year, but they have 18 more to go. Games against the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox will all be crucial for AL East seeding, but it's these winnable ones against Baltimore that could once again decide the division.