Mychal Givens (60) of the Baltimore Orioles celebrates with Chance Sisco (15) after a 4-2 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on June 11, 2019 in Baltimore, Md.Greg Fiume/Getty Images
Rookie John Means tied a season-high with seven strikeouts and the Baltimore Orioles took the series opener from the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 on Tuesday night.
Means (6-4) allowed one run on four hits with three walks over five innings and lowered his earned-run average to 2.60.
Baltimore reliever Shawn Armstrong threw a pair of scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Miguel Castro entered and allowed a bloop run-scoring double to Randal Grichuk that allowed the Blue Jays to close the score to 3-2 in the eighth.
The Orioles answered in the bottom half with a double that scored Stevie Wilkerson for a key insurance run. Mychal Givens picked up his sixth save.
Anthony Santander had three hits and an RBI-double for Baltimore, which can win consecutive games for the first time since May 4-6 and a series for the first time since April 22-24.
Eric Sogard led off the game with his sixth home run for the Blue Jays, who dropped their fifth straight game and have now lost 11 of their last 13 games.
Blue Jays rookie right-hander Trent Thornton (1-5) loaded the bases on three walks in the second, but the Orioles couldn’t capitalize. Baltimore took a 2-1 lead the following inning on back-to-back doubles by Trey Mancini and Chance Sisco.
The Orioles extended the lead to 3-1 in the fourth when a pop up by Santander landed between the second baseman Sogard and right fielder Grichuk.
Thornton allowed three runs and seven hits with four strikeouts and three walks over five innings.
Toronto has scored two or fewer runs in five consecutive games for the first time since 2014.