While it was a tough road trip and the Orioles are only in first by a half game, the fact is that they’re in first.
Advertisement
Toronto goes for the sweep tomorrow with Aaron Sanchez on the mound.
The Birds entered the series finale against the Blue Jays in the midst of a freefall, carrying a five-game losing streak that dated back to July 26. Both the offense and the starting pitching shared responsibility for the Orioles’ slide. NY suffered another costly injury, this one to shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, but snapped a four-game skid that matched its longest this season.
Neil Walker hit a long go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh inning as NY avoided being swept in the season series by Colorado.
Before Britton held the Blue Jays in check in the ninth and 10th innings, Darren O’Day tossed a scoreless 1 1/3 innings in his first work since Wednesday and right-hander Brad Brach struck out two in a scoreless eighth. The O’s are now 6-7 against the Jays this year, and the next time they will meet at the Rogers Centre will be seasonal games #157 to #159, just before a final three-game set at Yankee Stadium.
Walker hit a go-ahead, three-run homer that rallied the Mets past the Rockies 6-4 on Sunday and prevented a season sweep.
Despite that, it appears the Blue Jays are still leaning on sending Sanchez back to the bullpen to finish the season, but nobody with the organization is saying when that will take place.
Dillon Gee (3-5) gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings.
In fact, Sanchez faced just three batters over the minimum through six scoreless innings.
Blue Jays: RHP Marcus Stroman (8-4, 4.92) starts the opener of a four game-series at Houston. Sanchez is having a great year. But beating the team that just beat you and took first place away from you the day before … well, that’s better than a victory over a rebuilding outfit. “We like our chances if we can do that”.
Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is dealing with swelling around a chip fracture on the knuckle of his right thumb after being hit by a Chris Tillman pitch on Sunday.
CF Kevin Pillar hit two two-run doubles on Saturday in the 9-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Still, it seemed his efforts would go to naught.
The game turned in the top of the seventh, though, as the O’s finally solved Sanchez by delivering some quality at-bats with runners in scoring position – a skill they’ve often lacked since the All-Star break. Morlaes would follow that by walking JJ Hardy, putting runners on first and second. Dietrich then hit a drive into the left-field gap.
The Orioles’ bullpen took over from there. Two-time home run champ Chris Davis has been experiencing perhaps his worst slump ever; he simply hasn’t been able to hit much of anything.
“It’s a huge win for us”, manager Terry Collins said. “I’m not going to save him around for a close [situation] that may not happen”. Justin Verlander (11-6) got his first complete game of the season.
In New York, Neil Walker hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the seventh off Boone Logan (1-1) following James Loney’s 10-pitch walk, helping the Mets stop a four-game losing streak that matched their season high.
“I just stopped thinking, because this week wasn’t going my way”, Schoop told MASN. “Obviously he got me pretty good”.
“We came here in first place and we 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. His previous career best for wins was 12 in 2009.
Advertisement
And it might be an especially costly loss for the Blue Jays.
