TORONTO — The effort required to hurl a ball over 90 mph begins at the lowest point of a pitcher’s body and, for Trevor Rogers on Friday, an uncomfortable left toe seemed to throw off much of what his left arm has otherwise produced this season for the Orioles.

Rogers was effective in his five innings, but he issued a season-high four walks and needed to escape a bases-loaded jam of his own making in the third inning to keep the game close. At 79 pitches, he had had enough. Baltimore pulled Rogers from the game because of that toe discomfort, which he said is due to a blood blister under the left big toenail.

Rogers handed over a tie game to the bullpen against the Blue Jays. But the Orioles ceded the game through a tepid offensive display and a Toronto breakthrough against a bullpen that has been solid this month.

The Blue Jays didn’t solve Rogers. Few teams have. But, with him out of the game, the Orioles lost the series opener at Rogers Centre, 6-1, as the bullpen finally cracked.

Rogers has nursed his blood blister for months. Although the pain generally dissipates quickly, it lingered longer than usual Friday. That made his outing more difficult, and given where the Orioles are in the standings — 69-78 and officially eliminated from American League East contention with this loss — interim manager Tony Mansolino said the club decided to play it safely.

“Just hard to really push off, and then my foot dragging didn’t really help,” Rogers said. “I’m not going to say it was an excuse, but I’ve been doing a really good job of limiting the walks this year, and I had four walks today and it was definitely something that I had to think about. If I’m thinking about something else rather than executing the pitch, it’s not very good for me.”

Rogers is hopeful this will not impact his next start.

For as well as the Orioles have performed on defense this month — part of the backbone of a winning streak that buoys spirits in what could instead be a grueling end to the season — two miscues in the field provided runs for the Blue Jays. They both came with two outs and ended with tallies against Baltimore’s pitchers.

The first occurred after Rogers’ fourth walk of the game in the fifth inning. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. throttled a 115.2 mph single into the right-center gap, and center fielder Colton Cowser misplayed the ball. It rolled to the wall, which allowed Davis Schneider to score from first.

Mansolino said Cowser did well to charge the ball because the Blue Jays might have waved Schneider home from first even if he had come up cleanly with it. Instead, “he just made a mistake,” Mansolino said.

And in the sixth, with left-hander Dietrich Enns pitching, a throwing error by third baseman Emmanuel Rivera granted Isiah Kiner-Falefa second on an infield single. Myles Straw promptly split the gap for an RBI double.

“Tough night for us. Not our best night by any means,” Mansolino said. “It happens in baseball. It’s kind of part of a long season, and we’ll bounce back tomorrow.”

Rogers’ command issues were a concern, and the high-stress third inning — during which he walked three batters — elevated his pitch count. He evaded damage there and got through the fifth despite his toe discomfort; still, that marked his shortest outing since June 18.

The toe issue likely played a role in his fluctuating velocity. Rogers’ fastball averaged 92.1 mph, a full mph slower than usual, and it ranged from 95.5 mph to 89.2 mph.

“For whatever reason, it just lingered and my command suffered because of it,” Rogers said. “I think it just got to the point where it wasn’t going away and we just had that conversation that we don’t want to have this little issue affect anything mechanically and it turn into an even bigger issue. So very, very frustrating.”

Rogers worked with an early lead through the contributions of a pair of 21-year-olds. Samuel Basallo powered a low sinker from right-hander Chris Bassitt into the opposite-field gap for a double in the third, and he scored on Jackson Holliday’s single.

Later, Holliday swiped his 17th bag of the season, putting him in rarefied air. He’s the first player in Orioles history to reach 17 homers and 17 steals in a single season at age 21 or younger, and he’s only the 15th player in MLB history to do so.

But Baltimore couldn’t mount any more offense against Bassitt, who also pitched five innings, or the stable of relievers behind him.

“We haven’t swung the bat here the past week,” Mansolino said. “I think teams do go through those stretches. We’ve been fortunate to win some low-scoring games. Against a team like this, you’re going to have to throw up more hits on the board.”

And it only got worse for the Orioles after Rogers exited.

Enns allowed a pair of runs, and right-hander Shawn Dubin couldn’t maintain the close game. Dubin, stretched to a season-high 39 pitches, conceded a two-run double to Daulton Varsho and an RBI single to Guerrero in the eighth.

Baltimore’s relief corps had allowed five earned runs in 39 1/3 innings this month entering Friday. Then the relievers conceded five earned runs in one night.

That will happen. It just can’t happen when the offense goes dark. Coupling that with a shorter outing for Rogers due to injury, the Orioles were saddled with a loss.

News and notes

• The Orioles activated outfielder Tyler O’Neill from the injured list, and he played just his 44th game of the season. O’Neill has been placed on the injured list three times in his first year with Baltimore, and the limited action increases the likelihood of his opting in to the remainder of a three-year contract. O’Neill can opt out after the first season, but the injuries and poor results when healthy limit what sort of deals he can expect on the open market.
• Infielder Jordan Westburg, who has been out since suffering a sprained ankle Aug. 18, began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Norfolk. The best-case scenario, Mansolino said, is that Westburg will be available next week against the Chicago White Sox. However, the Orioles will work with him to assess his readiness, hoping to avoid rushing him back.

This article has been updated.