Morton struggled with control early in this one, walking two batters and hitting a third to load the bases with no outs. He was able to get out of it with just one run scored by inducing a pair of groundouts. After a scoreless second inning, Corbin Carroll took Morton deep for a solo homer in the third. A walk and two doubles brought two more runs in to score for the D-Backs in the fifth. The 41-year-old right-hander would end his day after five frames, striking out four batters with five walks. Morton lines up for a start against the Guardians in Baltimore on Tuesday.

Morton evaded trouble over the first few innings despite the Blue Jays making plenty of hard contact. Then, the dam finally broke in the fourth when he let the first four that he faced to reach base and then was pulled after an Alan Roden sacrifice fly. It was a bit of a surprise to see the Orioles go after Morton this offseason after the horrible second half he had last season with the Braves and this start was more of the same struggles. His fastball command was erratic and his curveball didn’t miss many bats. Overall, 12 of the 14 balls in play by the Blue Jays were hard hit and they never seemed uncomfortable in the box against Morton. It will not get easier for him in his next start scheduled against the Red Sox.

Baltimore hasn’t announced the order for the remainder of their Opening Day rotation yet, but it’ll be Cade Povich starting the club’s fifth game on Monday against the Red Sox followed by Zach Eflin. It’ll be Dean Kremer and Tomoyuki Sugano to close out the remainder of the season-opening series against Toronto.