David Hess throws 6 1/3 no-hit innings as Baltimore Orioles defeat the Blue Jays

TORONTO — David Hess pitched 6 1/3 no-hit innings and Jonathan Villar and Trey Mancini homered as the Baltimore Orioles hung on for a 6-5 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.

The Orioles (3-1) extended their win streak to three while Toronto (2-3) lost its second in a row despite staging a late rally after trailing 6-0 after six innings. 

Randal Grichuk hit a two-run homer and Freddy Galvis had a solo shot for Toronto after Hess exited following a near-flawless 82-pitch performance that including 50 strikes.

Baltimore’s relievers did not match Hess’s heroics.

Still Hess, Pedro Araujo, Mike Wright and Richard Bleier, who entered in the ninth after Brandon Drury singled, held the Jays to six hits. Baltimore had six hits.

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Down 6-3 in the ninth, the Jays put men on second and third with one out. Pinch-hitter Kevin Pillar’s sacrifice fly made it 6-4 and Teoscar Hernandez’s triple made it 6-5.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. struck out to end the comeback. Bleier got the save.

Just 10,460 fans took in the game at the Rogers Centre, the lowest attendance of the young season. Opening Day drew 45,048.

After four strong starts, the Toronto pitching faltered and the Jays trailed 4-0 after the first and 5-0 after the second as Sean Reid-Foley (0-1) struggled on the mound.

In contrast, Hess (1-0) retired 19 of 20 Jays in his 20th career start. He dispatched the first nine Jays he faced, a streak that ended with a Billy McKinney walk to open the fourth. It marked the fourth time in five games that Toronto failed to get a runner on base in the first three innings.

The 25-year-old Hess, a fifth-round pick of the Orioles in the 2014 draft, exited with one out in the seventh after Drury lined out hard to shortstop Richie Martin. Hess, who went 3-10 with a 4.88 earned-run average as a rookie last season, allowed just one walk while striking out a career-high eight.

He was replaced by Araujo, who gave up a walk and saw the no-hitter disappear when Grichuk hammered a shot over the left-field fence

Toronto’s Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez, Matt Shoemaker and Trent Thornton had combined for 24 scoreless innings in the first four games of the season against visiting Detroit.

But that streak ended with a four-run Baltimore first inning that saw the Orioles send nine men to the plate and Reid-Foley throw 34 pitches. Reid-Foley had been summoned from Triple-A Buffalo to replace left-hander Clayton Richard, who was sidelined by a stress reaction in his right knee.

It was the 23-year-old Reid-Foley feeling the stress early in his eighth career start. Villar got things going with a two-run homer with one out. After Mancini singled, the Jays had a chance to end the inning on a double play on Rio Ruiz’ infield grounder. But Galvis could not hang onto the throw at second.

A Renato Nunez walk loaded the bases and got the Jays bullpen working. Reid-Foley walked Chris Davis to score another run before a wild pitch scored Ruiz to make made it 4-0.

Cedric Mullins was hit by a pitch to open the second and eventually scored on Mancini’s sacrifice fly to increase the lead to five.

Thomas Pannone replaced Reid-Foley to open the third. Reid-Foley threw 52 pitches, 32 for strikes, giving up five runs (three earned) on four hits, two walks, three strikeouts, two wild pitches and one hit batsman. He faced 14 batters, getting just six out.

Pannone stemmed the flow of runs with four innings of scoreless relief. He ended his one-hit, five-strikeout stint with a marathon Mullins strikeout that required 12 pitches to complete.

Toronto reliever Sam Gaviglio took over in the seventh, giving up a solo 408-foot homer to Mancini in the seventh.

Wright took over for Baltimore in the eighth, yielding the Galvis homer.

Toronto split its opening series, losing Games 1 and 4 in extra innings while blanking the Tigers in Games 2 and 3. Baltimore, under new manager Brandon Hyde, won two of three against the New York Yankees.

Toronto won all 10 meetings with the Orioles at Rogers Centre last season, its third-longest such streak versus any opponent in team history.

Stroman is expected to start Tuesday for Toronto against Andrew Cashner.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press