The Toronto Blue Jays came out swinging Friday night and it was just enough to defeat the Baltimore Orioles 6-5.
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If the Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles continue to battle for the American League East crown over the final two months of the season, it stands to be an uncomfortable homestretch for their respective pitching staffs.
Manny Machado homered for the Orioles.
BALTIMORE: After losing 6-2 to the Twins on Thursday night, the Orioles have now lost three straight games and have split in their last 10 overall. The right-hander struck out four.
Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Gausman “never really found his step” against the powerful Blue Jays. “He elevated a lot of pitches”.
Yes, this is a big series, an exciting one, but not a definitive one. “Gausman’s tough and we put some pretty good swings early on”. “I was real proud the way the guys got back in it in a tough environment”. “It was a grind, for sure”.
Orioles reliever, Worley, would hold the Blue Jays offense as bay for his four innings of work.
“Any win against them is huge, we’re all right there”, said Estrada.
Showalter also was unhappy with some of calls on ball and strikes.
The Orioles jumped on Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada early, running out to a 2-0 lead on Mark Trumbo’s two-out double in the first.
Hyun Soon Kim reached on a bunt, and the next batter, Machado, walked. The runners moved up to second and third on a groundout to first by Chris Davis. Bautista drilled Gausman’s second pitch of the game off the facing of the second deck, Encarnacion hit a one-out blast and Tulowitzki added a two-out homer. Toronto has belted three home runs in an inning twice this season and 35 times in franchise history.2.
With the win, the Blue Jays sit just half a game behind the Baltimore Orioles for the division lead.
Tonight’s JFtC game ball goes to DH Edwin Encarnacion. “What we did previous year we can definitely fall back on”. After advancing to second, Machado bolted for third, leaving Russell Martin to cover the empty base.
Machado tied it 3-all when he scored from first base on an infield grounder in the third.
“Heads up play by Manny”, Showalter said.
“You can definitely pull from that, that’s why teams talk about experience and how important it is and how important it is getting pieces toward the deadline of experienced players, because it is different baseball”, said Tulowitzki. “Ideally, with two outs you maybe just eat the ball but guys are trying to make plays”. In addition to the three homers surrendered in the first, he also walked three Blue Jays and threw two wild pitches. Tulowitzki grounded out, scoring Encarnacion, who had led off with a walk and later advanced to third.
Tulowitzki’s groundout to second scored one run.
“I don’t feel 100 percent”, Estrada said, “but I still feel I can give the team quality innings”. “The one to Tulo was pretty good but the one to Bautista was up in the zone”. I was all over the place.
The Orioles got one run back in the fourth as Jonathan Schoop scored on a J.J. Hardy groundout.
Baltimore signed former Reds RHP Logan Ondrusek and designated RHP Chaz Roe for assignment. Toronto is not done by any means though as they still plan to move all-star pitcher and potential Cy Young candidate Aaron Sanchez to the bullpen and that would require bringing in another starting arm as they can ill afford to replace Sanchez with Drew Hutchison.
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Blue Jays: Signed C Erik Kratz to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Buffalo. Toronto LHP J.A. Happ (13-3, 3.27 ERA) starts the middle game of the three-game series Saturday against Baltimore RHP Yovani Gallardo (3-2, 5.37).
