Orioles continue to be a major headache for Blue Jays

TORONTO — Back-to-back home runs by Cedric Mullins and Adleyrutschman in the fifth inning spurred the Baltimore Orioles to a 4-2 win over the struggling Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday.

Baltimore (61-55) won 10 of 14 in August and climbed within half a game behind Toronto for third and final spot in the American League wild card playoffs. The Blue Jays (61-54) have just two wins in their last 10 games.

In a 2-2 tie on home runs, the Orioles scored two more hits in the sixth inning against Toronto starter Alek Manoah (12-6).

Terrin Vavra was issued a one out walk. He advanced to second with a groundout and hit with a Ramon Urias single to center.

Urias moved into second place when Blue Jays outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. wiggled his blooper and hit on Ryan McKenna’s sharp single to right field in front of Toronto’s Anthony Bass.

Toronto right fielder Teoscar Hernandez had a shot to knock Urias out, but catcher Alejandro Kirk couldn’t handle the one-hopper.

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Orioles starter Dean Kremer (5-4) put on a strong seven innings, allowing two runs with seven hits and hitting six with a walk.

Manoah went 5 2/3 innings in his 107 pitch effort for four runs, four hits, four walks and seven strikeouts.

Santiago Espinal had a three-hit outing for Toronto.

George Springer started the first inning with an infield hit and scored on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s team-leading 25th homer, this one to left field.

Manoah put the homer blazer on Guerrero. The Toronto starter gave up two early walks and Mullins reached base due to a Guerrero error. But Manoah had a no-hitter until Rougned Odor hit a sharp two-out single to right field in the fourth inning.

After two long fly-ball outs to center and right field to start the fifth inning, Mullins and rookie catcherrutschman tied back-to-back home runs to level the game.

The Blue Jays had an excellent opportunity to extend their 2-0 lead in the third game, but Matt Chapman struck out with a double play from loaded bases to end the inning.

NOTHING TO SHOW FOR BO

Bo Bichette’s struggles continued. The Blue Jays shortstop went 3-0 with three groundouts.

Bichette was moved to seventh in the batting order after finishing fourth or fifth since interim manager John Schneider replaced Charlie Montoyo last month.

“Just shake things up, give the guys a different look and see how things get out of hand,” Schneider said.

BOO BIRDS

The 37,940 at Rogers Center greeted Odor with derision whenever he made a plate appearance in that series.

Six years ago, the second baseman sparked a brawl when he slapped former Blue Jays batter Jose Bautista in the face for slipping hard in second place in a May 2016 game in Texas when Odor was a member of the Rangers.

He also took offense at Bautista’s bat flip homer in the 2015 American League Division series.

NEXT

Blue Jays righty Ross Stripling (5-3) returns to the mound for Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against Baltimore’s Austin Voth (3-1). Stripling has not started for Toronto since a 5-3 home win over the Detroit Tigers on July 30.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 16, 2022.