Both the offense and the starting pitching shared responsibility for the Orioles’ slide.
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The Baltimore Orioles accomplished plenty with their 12-inning, 6-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon.
Orioles: RHP Dylan Bundy (3-3, 3.46) starts Tuesday against Rangers RHP Yu Darvish (2-2, 3.09).
He pitched seven innings, giving up four hits and two earned runs while walking two and striking out three.
Both the star shortstop and manager John Gibbons said after a 6-2, 12-inning loss to the Baltimore Orioles that he’ll be reassessed Monday, and offered no possible prognosis on when he might be able to return.
Lucas Harrell gave up four hits in six innings of his Rangers debut after being was acquired from Atlanta last Wednesday to bolster Texas’ injury-riddled starting rotation.
With a repertoire like that, it is easy to understand the conundrum the Blue Jays are now experiencing with their 24-year-old phenom, who is morphing into mini Roy Halladay right before our eyes. The 28-year-old Californian allowed one run in seven innings in each of his prevous four turns, with three of the victories coming on the road. He allowed one run on one hit.
Gallardo (3-3) lost for the first time in five career meetings with the Blue Jays, including the opener of last year’s AL Division Series. “Their starters are solid”. You’ve just got to have a really good outing by your starter in order to compete and take your chance at the end. “We like our chances if we can do that”.
Tulowitzki hit a solo home run in the fourth inning, was hit by a pitch from Baltimore’s Chris Tillman in the sixth and left in the eighth.
Logan Ondrusek pitched a ideal bottom of the 12th for the Orioles. Still, it seemed his efforts would go to naught. They also scored 23 fewer runs, although there were three fewer games because of the all-star break.
The Giants won despite troubles hitting with runners in scoring position that have dogged them throughout the second half. The Blue Jays have a better than 55% chance of winning based on 10,000 game simulations generated one play at a time by the AccuScore Simulation Supercomputer.
The Orioles’ bullpen took over from there.
PUNCHED THEM OUT: J.A. Happ, who allowed three hits in seven-plus innings, struck out 11.
The Giants remained two games clear in the NL West, ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers, while the Nationals’ advantage at the top of the NL East was trimmed to four games.
Carlos Gonzalez hit a tying RBI double in the fifth and a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the seventh off victor Jerry Blevins (4-1). “We are approaching these games like post-season games. I’m not going to save him around for a close [situation] that may not happen”.
“A little sore, it obviously got me pretty good”, Tulowitzki said. “That’s why they, Boston and us are where we are, so you’ve got to trust your players and just don’t throw everybody under the bus because you’ve had a tough couple of games”.
“We came here in first place and we are going to try to maintain it”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.
The Orioles have closed the book on July, but their August schedule doesn’t get any easier.
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The Blue Jays, who overtook the Orioles by winning the first two games of the series, finished July with a record of 16-8.
