TORONTO -- Some Orioles fans may have been worried. General manager Mike Elias was not.

Baltimore¡¯s season-opening starting outfield of Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander hadn¡¯t been producing. The three pre-rebuild mainstays, who each have a sizable track record of big league success, were hitting a combined .193 (77-for-400) entering May 27.

Still, Elias expressed confidence in the trio when asked for his level of concern last Friday.

¡°Probably not as concerned as people watching are, because we believe in those guys,¡± Elias said. ¡°We¡¯ve seen what they¡¯ve done over the years. We know what their skill level is. We know what baseball¡¯s like. And they¡¯re going to do better than this. It¡¯s coming.¡±

It¡¯s here.

Hays hit his first two homers of the season and Santander also went deep, powering the Orioles to a series-opening 7-2 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Monday night. The veteran duo combined to go 4-for-8 with five RBIs.

¡°Those are two big pieces of our lineup, and for them to get hot is huge for us, especially for this stretch coming up,¡± said Baltimore starter Grayson Rodriguez, who allowed two runs (one earned) over a season-high 6 2/3 innings. ¡°It¡¯s going to be a team effort. It¡¯s going to take everybody. And when they¡¯re swinging the bat well, things are going to go good for us.¡±

Four games into a stretch of 30 contests in 31 days, Hays and Santander¡¯s bats are coming alive at an opportune time for the O¡¯s (38-20).

After going 87 plate appearances without a home run to begin the season, Hays recorded his sixth career multi-homer game. His most recent two-homer performance came last Sept. 19 at Houston -- which had also been the last time he went deep, as the 28-year-old snapped a career-long home run drought of 118 plate appearances.

Hays went 3-for-41 over his first 17 games, and just as his bat started to pick up -- he went 2-for-4 over a pair of contests in Kansas City on April 19 and 20 -- he went on the injured list with a left calf strain. However, he used the downtime to his advantage, working to correct an issue that stemmed from the illness he had late in the spring.

¡°I had time to put my strength and size back on that I had lost when I got sick toward the end of Spring Training, [and] I really started feeling like myself,¡± said Hays, a 2023 All-Star who is hitting .316 (12-for-38) in 14 games since coming off the IL. ¡°And now, I¡¯m able to drive the ball like I was before I lost that weight, so I¡¯m feeling good.¡±

Both of Hays¡¯ homers on Monday came off Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman -- a two-run blast to left in the fourth and a solo shot to right-center to lead off the seventh.

Before those, Santander gave the Orioles an early lead with a two-run homer off Gausman in the second to open the game¡¯s scoring. It was the 29-year-old¡¯s 11th home run of the season, which ranks second on the team behind only Gunnar Henderson (19).

Santander, who extended his hitting streak to a season-high six games, has gone deep in four of his past 10 contests.

¡°Bat speed is there, looks like he¡¯s getting to the high heater right now,¡± manager Brandon Hyde said. ¡°Good swings by him.¡±

¡°When he¡¯s going, we¡¯re going, we¡¯re scoring a lot of runs,¡± Hays added.

With the emergence of Colton Cowser (the American League Rookie of the Month in March/April), the playing time for both Hays and Mullins has gone down from last year. Hays¡¯ recent performances could get him more time in the lineup.

Baltimore is still trying to get Mullins¡¯ bat going, although the 2021 All-Star continues to play tremendous defense when he¡¯s in center field. But the 29-year-old (who was out of the lineup Monday) is hitting .181 after going 1-for-20 over his past nine games.

For now, the Orioles have enough other potent bats throughout their lineup to continue playing well. They hit a season-high-tying four homers in the opener in Toronto -- pushing their 2024 total to 88, second in MLB behind only the Yankees (90) -- as Ram¨®n Ur¨ªas also went deep, hitting a solo homer in the ninth.

The O¡¯s have three four-homer games, two coming over the past three days.

¡°I think it¡¯s just the ebb and flow of the season,¡± Hays said. ¡°You¡¯re going to get hot, you¡¯re going to cool off, you¡¯re going to heat back up. The weather¡¯s getting hotter now, the ball usually starts to fly better. Gonna have a good June.¡±