Blue Jays walkoff the Orioles
It has been less than two years since the Orioles and Blue Jays battled at Rogers Centre in a thrilling wild-card game that kick started Toronto’s run to the American League Championship Series.
Both franchises have been on a steady slide since that 2016 post-season. If a glance at the regular-season standings isn’t proof enough, the live experience on Friday night would have done the trick.
It was a matchup between two teams who have already started playing out the string in mid-July. Some late drama in Toronto’s 8-7 walkoff win saved a game that featured three errors, several mental hiccups and plenty of home runs.
Aledmys Diaz drove in Russell Martin in the 10th inning for the victory. His sharp grounder deflected off the glove of third baseman Renato Nunez and shortstop Tim Beckham couldn’t come up with it either.
The ball rolled into left field and Martin scored from second base for the winning run.
“You’ve got to have breaks in this game and we got a big one there,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “We were playing a good game and we had a nice little lead and you see it evaporate — you never feel good about that. “That was a game we deserved to win.” Toronto reliever Tyler Clippard gave up three runs in the ninth inning as the Orioles forced the extra frame. Caleb Joseph homered before Jonathan Schoop went deep to tie it.
“Those late-inning bullpen guys — it’s a tough job,” Gibbons said. “Sometimes they get you, sometimes they don’t.”
Diaz, Martin and Randal Grichuk homered for the Blue Jays and starter Sam Gaviglio posted career highs of 7 2/3 innings pitched and eight strikeouts.
Toronto outhit Baltimore 11-10 as the Blue Jays (44-52) took the opener of the three-game series. The Blue Jays evened their home record at 25-25 on the season.
John Axford (3-1) threw a clean 10th inning for the win. Paul Fry (0-1) shouldered the loss for the Orioles, who fell to 28-70.
“We clawed our way back into it, we just couldn’t get over the hump there,” said Baltimore manager Buck Showalter. “Defence was a challenge and it caught up with us.”