Baltimore Orioles are exactly what Blue Jays were supposed to be — and rub it in once again with blowout win

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Tough to say what would have been the most frustrating point to lament from another one-sided Blue Jays loss here on Monday night.

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Certainly high on the list would be the recognition of just how completely the Baltimore Orioles have dominated them over the past year and change as their division rivals scored a stress-free 7-2 win over the Jays.

While typical of an early June contest, the Rogers Centre crowd of 23,842 was the second smallest of the season, a letdown in more ways than one on the second night of its City Connect marketing push.

As for the opposition, this is an Orioles team that wiped out the Jays in 2023 going 10-3 in 13 meetings, riding that domination to a division title that certainly signalled a changing of the guard in the AL East.

“They’re a good team … everyone in the league knows that,” Jays manager John Schneider said after the latest drubbing. “But you have to find a way to score because they’re pretty good at putting up runs.

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“That’s how they’re build. They’re built to do damage.”

That damage has led to domination against the Jays, especially when the O’s make a visit north of the border. Nobody loves the renovated dome more than these guys, who are now 7-1 here since the Rogers overlords shelled out $400 million or so to spruce the place up.

And the lament doesn’t end there.

There is the reality that Baltimore is flush with talent both at the major and minor-league level while the Jays’ diminishing depth is compromising its hopes of a return to post-season contention.

And perhaps most worrisome in the short term, with three more games to go in a series that feels heavier than it should at this time of the season, the Jays have some serious questions about how they will navigate the O’s, pitching wise.

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What has to be infuriating for the Toronto fan base is that the Orioles are doing precisely what was promised from the Jays as recently as three short seasons ago.

Not that these struggles are a recent development, of course, just the latest.

On Monday, the O’s belted no fewer than four home runs — including a pair from Austin Hays — as they unleashed the type of attack the Jays were renowned for in the early days of Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.

“Listen, they’re deep and they’ve got a lot of young talent,” said Gausman who allowed six earned runs, equalling his most this season. “They’re obviously playing with their hair on fire right now and are very confident.”

Though Guerrero did mash a solo homer (just his sixth of the season), the Orioles are now offensively what Toronto used to be — an electrifying bunch of hungry hitters that can change a game with a mighty swing of the bat or two.

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The Jays, meanwhile, fell to 28-31 and 7-9 against AL East opponents, which is where the biggest discrepancy between these two clubs currently falls.

The Orioles are a juggernaut in the division, having gone 19 series without a loss to one of those four foes (16-0-5.) and are now 12-4 against AL East opponents this season.

And as much as a large portion of the credit goes to the cadre of young O’s hitters such as Adley Rutschman sand Gunnar Henderson, manager Brandon Hyde believes the O’s pitching has been key to his team’s overall fortitude.

“Pitching against AL East opponents is something we couldn’t do my first few years here and we’ve done a lot better job of that the last couple years,” Hyde said prior to Monday’s game. “The pitching has improved tremendously to give us a chance offensively.”

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Unlike the Jays, the Orioles didn’t need to sacrifice offence to complement pitching — they just kept developing studs for the batter’s box and promoting them on the regular

The Jays will try to rebound on Tuesday, though the prospects for improvement don’t exactly escalate win the short term. The modest Toronto offence faces the O’s former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes while Bowden Francis is expected to be activated from the injured list to handle the bulk of the workload for the home team.

On paper, that will hardly sprout fear in an Orioles group that takes pleasure on regular thumping a struggling divisional foe. Then again, not much does.

AROUND THE BASES

The Jays early-game ineptitude continued as they failed to score in the first inning for a 25th consecutive game, extending a club record … Pitching coach Pete Walker was ejected in the fourth inning after home plate ump Phil Cuzzi didn’t appreciate his in-game commentary … The uneven season continued for Jays starter Kevin Gausman — another ongoing concern for the team. The righty allowed six runs on six hits through 6.1 innings and was hit hard as he surrendered three homers.

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