Rodriguez, out of the starting lineup the previous six games, struck out in all four of his at-bats. While he was on the DL (June 17-July 24), the Blue Jays’ 2-3-4 hitters hit 1.005 OPS to lead Major League Baseball and 25 home runs, second most in the AL. That pushed the Blue Jays ahead of the Orioles in the AL East standings and put the Birds on the brink of getting swept.
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Carlos Rodon (2-8) gave up five runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings in his return from a sprained left wrist.
Mychal Givens walked Troy Tulowitzki, then gave up two-run doubles to Russell Martin and Kevin Pillar. Sanchez was the latest Jays starter to hurl a quality start against the Orioles, after righty Marco Estrada and lefty J.A. Happ did so during the first two games of the series.
“Move on, another challenge our guys responded well to”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. Sanchez is having a great year.
“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. “We like our chances if we can do that”.
Happ (14-3) allowed one run and three hits in seven-plus innings, walked three and matched his season high with 11 strikeouts.
He held the Jays to two runs in 5.2 innings, although his escalated pitch count of 111 knocked him out of the game in the sixth. Still, it seemed his efforts would go to naught. 500 after the All-Star Break for the first time since 2010. Alvarez scored when Schoop singled to left with one out.
The Orioles’ bullpen took over from there.
Cain (3-6) struck out five and walked four on 93 pitches. Perhaps the key to the game was Showalter’s decision to bring in closer Zach Britton for two innings. Salvage only a single game in the series, that’s all, and they’ll be back up top. “We are approaching these games like post-season games”. Hechavarria then scored on Dietrich’s triple that deflected off the glove of center fielder Tommy Pham.
Sanchez hasn’t taken a loss since April 22 against the Oakland A’s, on Sunday holding the opposition to two earned runs over seven for the 11th time this season.
“I just stopped thinking, because this week wasn’t going my way”, Schoop told MASN. “I just couldn’t grip a bat, but obviously I’m good enough to still play defence, so we’ll see how fast we can get the swelling out, see how it feels (Monday), and go from there”.
The Toronto Blue Jays are 32-23 at home this season and are solid favorites to beat the Baltimore Orioles who are 21-29 on the road this season.
Rangers 5, Royals 3: Mitch Moreland homered for the fifth time in his last five starts, and Lucas Harrell (3-2) won in his Texas debut as the Rangers finished a four-game sweep of the World Series champions.
The Orioles have closed the book on July, but their August schedule doesn’t get any easier. In those seven starts, Sanchez hasn’t walk more than two batters in any of them.
The Yankees and Mets are viewed as heading in opposite directions, but the former are only two games behind the Mets in terms of their won-loss record.
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And it is precisely for that reason that the Blue Jays want to be extra cautious in monitoring the workload of Sanchez in order to protect his talented arm, not only for this year, but also for years to come. They’ll need to get their offense clicking again, and get respectable outings from starting pitchers more frequently, if they hope to remain perched in first place in the division.
