With the Toronto Blue Jays being 0.5 games short from taking first place overall in the AL EAST – they needed to beat the #1 seed to claim that spot: Baltimore Orioles.
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“I felt good early on”, Happ said. The Orioles, who spent 99 of the season’s 119 days in first place, have yielded 45 runs while losing five of six games in Toronto this season.
Tigers 11, Astros 0: James McCann capped a six-run first inning with his first career grand slam, and Miguel Cabrera homered twice and drove in four runs, helping Detroit complete a sweep.
Tulowitzki led off the bottom of the fourth with his 18th home run of the season, a drive to left on a first-pitch changeup.
“It means we are playing good baseball”, catcher Russell Martin said.
On the positive side, O’s ace Chris Tillman rebounded from a rough outing against the Colorado Rockies July 26 – six runs in five innings – with a solid start in Toronto. The most productive batter for the Baltimore Orioles is Mark Trumbo who averaged 1.74 hits+walks+RBI. “There won’t a whole lot to hit”. Happ struck out a career-high 12 against Baltimore on August 7, 2014.
“He was on today”, Martin said. “His fastball was just exploding toward the plate”. J.J. Hardy then walked and Jesse Chavez replaced Morales. Puig hasn’t started since July 20 due to tightness in his right hamstring, although he has pinch hit a few times.
“We don’t think it’s a big deal”, Gibbons said.
Inserted into a 2-2 ball game in the top of the 12th, Morales issued a four-pitch walk to Alvarez, the Baltimore leadoff hitter.
“I don’t know, you’d have to ask them”, Tulowitzki said when asked if the Orioles were pitching him up and in because of the homer.
The loss overshadowed another strong performance by Sanchez, who worked seven innings and allowed two of the Baltimore runs off just four hits while striking out three. Jonathan Schoop grounded into a fielder’s choice, Manny Machado flied out and Brett Cecil came on to strike out Chris Davis.
“We came here in first place and we are going to try to maintain it”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.
Wade Miley (7-8) took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning before allowing Kris Bryant’s single and Javier Baez’s RBI groundout.
Making his third appearance for the Cubs since he was acquired from the New York Yankees, Chapman allowed Martin’s double to left-centre that put Seattle ahead 2-1.
GIANTS 3, NATIONALS 1: Matt Cain threw five hitless innings for his 100th career victory and host San Francisco held Washington to three hits.
The Cubs trailed 6-3 before they pushed across three runs in the ninth against Steve Cishek, handing the sidewinding right-hander his sixth blown save in 31 opportunities. They’ll start a three-game home series against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers Aug. 2, then will head back out on the road for a three-city, 10-game trip that takes them to the West Coast for the third time this season.
Starting with their series in San Francisco Aug. 12, the Orioles will play 22 consecutive games against teams that are currently.500 or better.
They were 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position Sunday and are batting.139 (19 for 137) in that department since the All-Star break.
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Santiago Casilla pitched the ninth for his 24th save.
