The victory gave Toronto (76-57) the win in the crucial three-game series, as the Blue Jays took two games while pushing the Orioles (72-61) four games behind in the American League East.
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Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, right, watches from the dugout during the fifth inning of the team’s baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016.
This is a touchy subject in the Orioles clubhouse, where the players also wonder where everybody went.
Baltimore pulled within three games of the first-place Blue Jays, who had a four-game winning streak snapped. “With September coming in, we’ve just got to compete and play hard and try to win as many games as possible”, Jonathan Schoop said.
Sanchez (13-2) was recalled from Class-A Dunedin to make the start.
Sanchez spent 10 days in the minors as a way of keeping his workload down, and it remains to be seen how the Blue Jays’ rotation will shake out down the stretch in the regular season. Happ allowed three runs and six hits with three strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings.
Kevin Pillar singled in Dioner Navarro in the seventh inning and Michael Sauders connected for a solo home run in the eighth inning to cushion the advantage for the Blue Jays, who weathered a ninth inning rally by the Orioles.
The Orioles have three players – Chris Davis, Machado and Mark Trumbo – with at least 10 home runs in August. “We’re going to be playing a lot of teams in the division, so there are going to be a lot of big games”.
The game was delayed for about 15 minutes when home plate umpire Jerry Layne was hit in the mask on a pitch by Sanchez. Alan Porter took over for Layne. Hyun Soo Kim and Schoop hit back-to-back two-out singles before third baseman Josh Donaldson’s error on Manny Machado’s soft grounder brought in a run. But they know better than to complain about the fans when there is still a very faithful core that shows up regularly and – if Tuesday night was any indication – cheer a lot louder than their numbers would lead anyone to expect. That is our ultimate goal, to be in that spot. We got a month of baseball left.
After allowing the two homers, Gallardo (4-7) settled down and retired the final 10 batters he faced. “He gave us a chance to win. It was really good, everything was down, and we got a lot of guys hitting ground balls”. He doesn’t strike out enough batters and walks too many to be relied upon in fantasy leagues.
Blue Jays: RHP Bo Schultz was optioned to Buffalo to make room for Sanchez.
NOTES: Baltimore acquired OF Drew Stubbs off waivers from the Texas Rangers.
The Orioles also completed a trade late in the game, acquiring outfielder Michael Bourn from Arizona in exchange for minor-league outfielder Jason Heinrich. The Blue Jays placed INF Darwin Barney on the family medical emergency list and recalled INF Ryan Goins from Triple-A Buffalo. Gibbons did not disclose further details.
“He pitched well I thought for the most part”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.
Blue Jays: Gibbons has not named a starter for the game Friday in Tampa Bay.
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The 24-year-old Sanchez has had a promising season in the majors, sporting a 2.99 ERA and 3.76 SIERA through 24 starts, while posting a 20.6 percent strikeout rate, 7.2 percent walk rate and 1.16 WHIP.
