BALTIMORE -- Had the skies not opened, seemingly at random, things might have been different. If not for the rain, the Blue Jays may have padded the lead they built on two Bo Bichette homers. Interim manager John Schneider may have deployed his bullpen arms as he intended. Toronto might have survived one of Alek Manoah’s shortest starts of the season, and avoided some wet, sticky heartbreak Tuesday night at Oriole Park.

But that’s not what happened. And if the Blue Jays aren’t careful, these losses to the Orioles might come back to bite them -- and their season might not go precisely as planned, as well.

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Instead, as Zach Pop warmed up to pitch the bottom of the sixth, the grounds crew rolled out the tarp, despite no rainfall. It was several minutes before the flash storm followed, halting play for 78 minutes. When it resumed, Pop was no longer available.

Two innings later, Yimi García surrendered a go-ahead two-run home run to Rougned Odor that, after Félix Bautista retired Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to strand the tying run on second, stood as the game winner. The resulting 6-5 defeat to the Orioles shrunk the difference between the two teams to two games, and Toronto’s grip on the top Wild Card spot to one game over Seattle and 1 1/2 games over Tampa Bay.

Baltimore inched to a half-game behind the Rays for the final spot.

“That sucked,” Schneider said.

Less succinctly, the late-inning meltdown morphed a good comeback into a bad loss on a suffocatingly humid night in the Charm City. The loss was Toronto’s fifth in seven games. Meanwhile, the surprise Orioles are surging.

“I think the rain delay hurt us with the momentum we had,” Schneider said. “I’m not sure why they pulled the tarp when they did. We burned a pitcher because of it. Every loss sucks, and right now we just need to score some more runs. If we do that, we’ll be just fine.”

On that front, the Blue Jays were pleased to see the big night from Bichette, who achieved his seventh career multihomer game and his second this season. Bichette drove a full-count Kyle Bradish slider over the high right-field wall for a solo homer in the second, and he punched a 99-mph Bryan Baker fastball into the right-field foul pole for his go-ahead tater in the sixth. Guerrero also extended his hit streak to 20 games with a single in front of Bichette’s sixth-inning homer; it's the longest active hit streak in the Majors and the longest in the American League this season.

“When he’s doing that, it’s a really good thing,” Schneider said of Bichette. “Since Minnesota, he’s getting his best swing off and being a little more selective, even though the walks aren’t really there. He’s swinging at the pitches he should be swinging at.”

The Blue Jays know that when their lineup is clicking on all cylinders, Bichette is a hugely important part of it. It’s taken a while, but their dynamic shortstop is starting to look like himself again after slumping on the heels of his All-Star 2021 season. Bichette’s numbers (.263 AVG, .740 OPS, 17 HR) are still a far cry from his ‘21 output (.298 AVG, .827 OPS, 29 HR) across the board, but this recent six-game hot stretch (10-for-27, 3 HR, 8 RBIs) has Toronto hopeful he’s hitting his stride.

As much as they need Bichette to catch fire, the Blue Jays also need to create separation in the standings. Two games into their massive block of head-to-head matchups with Baltimore over the season’s final two months, that isn’t happening.

“They’re playing really good baseball right now, and winning games on the road is always tough in the AL East,” Manoah said. “We’re just waiting for the ball to bounce our way.”

The Blue Jays and Orioles will play 13 more times over the season’s final 52 games, including Wednesday’s series finale. Toronto is now 2-4 against Baltimore this season, which is important because the head-to-head record is the main playoff tiebreaker this year with no Game 163. So, for example, if the Blue Jays and O’s finished tied for a playoff spot, the winner of the season series would advance. The other would be eliminated.

“I think we're right where we need to be,” Manoah said. “We’ve added a couple guys and we’re coming together as a unit. We'll continue to grind it out and try to become a full product.”