  Baltimore Orioles' Julio Lugo leaps over the sliding Travis Snider of the Toronto Blue Jays. (REUTERS/Joe Giza)
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BALTIMORE — When you’re a starting pitcher and it’s the first inning, you’ve walked four batters, hit another, have the bases loaded and one out, have a reliever warming up in the bullpen to take over and have thrown 34 pitches, the chances are you’re not having a particularly good time.
But that’s exactly where right-hander Brandon Morrow found himself in his Blue Jays debut at chilly Camden Yards Friday afternoon, having squandered a 3-0 lead by virtue of an utterly inept beginning.
On the next pitch, however, on a 1-2 count against Orioles first baseman Garrett Atkins, things changed in a hurry to the relief of Morrow and his mates.
On pitch No. 35, Atkins hit a room service, double-play grounder to shortstop Alex Gonzalez that was turned easily to end the inning and Morrow’s torment.
It also temporarily turned his fortunes around as Morrow would breeze through the next three innings before stubbing his toe in the fifth when he served up a two-run homer to Miguel Tejada that tied the game 5-5.
That would be Morrow’s final frame in a game the Jays would pull out of the hat with two runs in the ninth to score a 7-6 victory.
Morrow, 25, is one of the plums acquired this off-season by general manager Alex Anthopoulos in the first year of his re-make of the team.
He was plucked from Seattle for hard-throwing reliever Brandon League and was proclaimed to have a ton of “upside.” He was the fifth player taken overall in the 2006 June draft and the claim was that he had the goods to become a valued part of the rotation, a front-end guy.
It may all come true and it was there in innings 2-3-4 but what happened coming out of the gate was something even in the glow of victory, Morrow didn’t want to address.
“I’ve already put it behind me and I tried to forget about it the second I stepped back into the dugout,” he said. “It’s one of those things I’ve just got to forget about.
“I thought I pitched pretty good until I really made a stupid pitch to Tejada. Minus the first inning and minus that one pitch I thought I threw the ball well.”
Stupid? Stupid how?
“It was a changeup and I don’t throw changeups to right-handed hitters, that’s why I called it a stupid pitch,” Morrow said.
Morrow was a completely different pitcher after the first and it was that guy that the Jays expect to see most times he starts.
“When I came back out in the second I relaxed and started to let my arm work for me and got into a pretty good rhythm from there on out,” he said.
Morrow hardly had any time to collect his thoughts between the first and second as Baltimore starter Brad Bergesen needed just eight pitches to retire the Jays. It turned out to be a plus for Morrow.
“I didn’t have time to think about it for too long,” he said. “Then I tripped coming out of the dugout and almost caught my teeth on the front steps so I figured nothing else could go wrong.”
Catcher John Buck put Morrow’s first-inning woes down to youth, being over-amped for his first start with a new team before a packed house (48,891).
“I think it was just that he was excited, a little erratic, couldn’t find his fastball,” Buck said. “Personally I just chalk it up to excitement, new team, opening day. That special thing kind of gets you sometimes.
“After that he settled back down. You could see he was upset but he knew that he had a whole lot of ball game and he did a good job and ended up going a ways. For Cito getting the bullpen up and then (Morrow) going four or five innings that was huge.”
Which is as it should be when big things are expected.
