TORONTO - The Toronto Blue Jays lost star Jose Bautista to injury and then fell apart in an ugly 12-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday.

Bautista was smoked in the head by a 91-m.p.h. fastball from Orioles starter Jake Arrieta in the third inning and immediately fell to the turf.

Blue Jays manager John Farrell and a pair of trainers ran out to home plate and examined Bautista for several minutes, while the third baseman stayed on his knees before walking off the field and out of the game.

The team said Bautista, who leads the majors with 31 home runs and entered the game batting .330 with 70 RBIs, was removed for precautionary reasons and is day to day.

Toronto starter Brandon Morrow (7-5) lasted just 3 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs on nine hits including a pair of homers from Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy and a solo shot by left-fielder Nolan Reimold.

Adam Lind and Aaron Hill homered for the Blue Jays (51-52), who gave up 16 hits to Baltimore (41-58) and another homer by Orioles first baseman Derrek Lee in front of 17,477 at Rogers Centre.

Arrieta (10-7) did just enough through five innings of work for Baltimore, giving up four runs on five hits with four strikouts. He left the game after being hit in the right foot by a hard grounder, but was lucky when X-rays came back negative.

Toronto responded to Bautista's injury in the next at-bat when Lind drove in a three-run homer to cut Baltimore's lead to 4-3. It was the fifth straight game Lind has homered against Baltimore. The Jays' first baseman entered the game with a scorching .556 batting average and six homers against the Orioles this season.

With Bautista out of the picture, Baltimore went back to work on Morrow in the fourth inning. Reimold and Hardy both homered to give the Orioles a 7-3 lead and Morrow -- who had won his previous five starts and was celebrating his 27th birthday -- was pulled shortly after in favour of Shawn Camp.

Camp fared no better in relief, giving up another three runs and spotting Baltimore a 10-4 lead through five innings.

Toronto showed some heart in the sixth inning by loading the bases, but outfielder Eric Thames hit straight into Lee's glove, ending the inning.

Lee capped Baltimore's scoring in the eighth inning with a two-run shot off Jays reliever Wil Ledezma.