BALTIMORE — The American League East-leading Blue Jays came to Baltimore as baseball’s hottest team. The Orioles, by starting the four-game series with two imposing victories, extinguished that stretch with a pair of offensive outputs that showed what a mostly healthy lineup can do — even if it’s too late to change the front office’s plans.

“Mike [Elias] is going to have some choices to make,” starting pitcher Charlie Morton said.

Baltimore took Game 1 of Tuesday’s doubleheader, 16-4, for the team’s fourth straight victory behind a franchise-record five sacrifice flies, a Tyler O’Neill-led ambush on Toronto’s pitching staff and a quality Morton start in what could be the veteran right-hander’s final game in orange and black.

O’Neill, maligned for his injury woes that tarnished his introduction to his new team, is finally becoming the middle-of-the-order right-handed bat the Orioles hoped he’d be. His sixth inning, three-run homer that made it 8-3 capped a 2-for-3, four-RBI day that included a sacrifice fly and a walk.

He was a part of a top of the lineup that pounced on Blue Jays lefty Easton Lucas, a former Orioles prospect acquired for infielder Jonathan Villar in 2019 and dealt for reliever Shintaro Fujinami in 2023. Another flyout, this one from Cedric Mullins, was deep enough to left field to score Ramón Laureano and make it 2-0 early. The Orioles again loaded the bases with no outs against Lucas in the third, and again scored two via a pair of sacrifice flies. Ramón Urías brought home Laureano, and Mullins drove in Gunnar Henderson to give the Orioles a 4-1 lead and chase Lucas before he finished the inning.

“We’ve been competing all year, even through the worst of times,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “When you have days like this, it just feels good.”

It was more of the same against the Toronto bullpen. A six-run sixth frame featured a Henderson RBI single, Urías home run, Mullins double and Colton Cowser RBI single. Baltimore added four in the seventh courtesy of a three-run homer by Henderson and another long ball from Urías. The Orioles added two more runs off catcher Ali Sánchez, who took the mound in the bottom of the eighth, to put the finishing touches on one of the loudest offensive outputs of the season.

And the numbers that make up this four-game winning streak prove what this lineup could have been at its best.

Five sacrifice flies, which became an official statistic in 1954 (the same year the club moved to Baltimore), is a team record and ties the MLB record that was most recently achieved by the 2008 Mariners. It’s the first time the Orioles have scored 10 or more runs in consecutive games since June 2024, last season’s peak before injuries and underperformances cratered Baltimore’s hopes.

O’Neill had never homered in four straight games before. Tuesday is also the seventh time in 11 games that the Orioles scored in the first inning.

“We’ve got a group that is healthy,” Urías said. “The boys are swinging it well, feeling good, so we’re just carrying the momentum.”

It’s likely not enough to sway the club’s decision makers away from partially dismantling this squad. Instead, this week is full of what could be final appearances in Baltimore for the many Orioles’ trade candidates. Zach Eflin didn’t complete five innings Monday. Mullins this week rediscovered the bat and glove that made him an All-Star four years ago. Tuesday afternoon was Morton’s turn.

The 41-year-old, who’s acknowledged feeling guilt for how this season unfolded but has been excellent in recent months, was somewhere in the middle. He retired seven of the first eight batters he faced before the Blue Jays broke through in the third. They added on in the fourth with a two-run homer from Addison Barger that trimmed the Orioles’ lead to one. But Morton stranded two in a bounce-back scoreless fifth, then left another pair on the bases in the sixth to complete his sixth quality start of the year and second in a row.

The trade deadline is 48 hours away. If this stretch had come weeks earlier, the Orioles might not be sellers ready to give up on 2025.

“I don’t know if I’m thinking more about it,” Morton said when asked about the possibility of him being moved. “I think maybe I’m thinking differently about it, just because it’s fast approaching. I wouldn’t say that I’m thinking more about it, necessarily. I do think, though, it’s just kind of becoming more of a reality. And it’s kind of like, it’s a moment in time that you know is there, and you know it exists, but you don’t know how it’s gonna play out. And as it gets closer, you’re kind of closer to that reckoning moment where something will happen.”

Around the horn

— Right-hander Colin Selby was placed on the 15-day injured list with a left hamstring strain, the Orioles announced Tuesday. He pitched a scoreless inning in Monday’s win and has allowed five earned runs across nine appearances with Baltimore. Right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk for his third stint with the major league club this season and allowed one run in two innings to finish Tuesday’s first game.

— Right-hander Brandon Young was added as the 27th man for Tuesday’s doubleheader and will start Game 2, which begins at 6:35 p.m., Mansolino said after Game 1.

— Ryan Mountcastle will likely rejoin the Orioles for their three-game set against the Phillies in Philadelphia that begins Monday, Mansolino said. The first baseman has played in three games for Norfolk on his rehabilitation assignment, going 6 for 12 with four extra-base hits. Starting pitchers Kyle Bradish and Cade Povich will both make rehabilitation starts Tuesday: Bradish with Double-A Chesapeake and Povich for the Tides. Both games begin at 6:35 p.m.

— Starter Grayson Rodriguez is receiving multiple opinions on his elbow injury that has kept him from taking the mound this season, Mansolino said.

— Toronto outfielder George Springer is doing better Tuesday after being hit in the head with a 96-mph sinker from Kade Strowd in the ninth inning of Monday night’s game, Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

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