BALTIMORE -- Wade Miley did his job on Monday night.
Unfortunately for the Orioles, the offense didn't. Miley turned in his second straight solid start, going seven innings in the Orioles' 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays, as the lefty is showing signs of settling in with Baltimore.
"[He] took advantage of some liberalness with the strike zone and made them honor the ball in," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said of Miley, who struck out five of the first eight he faced.
"Changeup was there. [Catcher] Matt [Wieters] could put down any finger and he'd be able to make them think about it, so he had really three pitches they had to think about that he could throw for a strike. He had good tempo. When he gets things going it really makes them operate at his speed."
The Orioles' non-waiver Trade Deadline acquisition, Miley held a lethal Blue Jays lineup to three runs -- including solo homers to red-hot Josh Donaldson and José Bautista -- and finished with nine strikeouts.
"I think the umpire had a good strike zone. Maybe a little more pitcher friendly. But he was consistent on both sides. He was great," Miley said. "Obviously it's a great lineup over there. You don't really get a lot of breaks, just got to make some pitches."
Following his 1 2/3-innings outing on Aug. 19, which matched the shortest start of his career, Miley has held opponents to three or fewer runs in each of his past two starts. If he can keep that up, it could go a long way in helping a struggling O's rotation -- which is without Opening Day starter Chris Tillman -- though Baltimore squandered Miley's solid effort Monday.
"It's very disappointing," Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy said of wasting Miley's 112-pitch outing. "We want to go out there and win for all of our pitchers. I mean, he was pitching good, pitching really fast, and [to] get through seven innings giving up three runs, gave us a chance to win. We just didn't score."
Monday's outing was Miley's best as an Oriole and lowered his season ERA to 5.43 in the process.