Blue Jays come up short in bid to sweep O’s, as gritty Estrada plays out string
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The Blue Jays were in search of a three-game sweep of the only team in the AL East against which they have had any success against all this year, but came up just short, losing 2-1 to the Orioles, ending a four-game win streak.
It had been the Jays’ longest streak on the road since Aug. 2-5, 2016. The Jays finished this season 14-5 against Baltimore.
The times they are a-changing. The Blue Jays organization has commenced a rebuild with 11 players on the current Septem- ber roster at 24 years of age or younger. Then there’s 34-yearold Marco Estrada who is playing out his contract headed to free-agency and is clearly not a part of that future.
While the Jays audition young position players for the next generation, for the next chance to contend in two or three years, Estrada is competing for his team; but also for his next contract winding down a dismal season of aches and bruises that began with promise as part of a highly touted Jays’ rotation.
The Orioles opened the scoring in the third with rookie D.J. Stewart clubbing his first career home run high off the right-field foul pole. The Jays blew an early chance to tie the game in the fourth inning. Starter Jimmy Yacabonis loaded the bases with nobody out. Kendrys Morales then hit a shallow fly ball to right field with Billy McKinney tagging at third and being thrown out at the plate by Adam Jones. The ball was too shallow for the Jays to take that chance with nobody out. The next batter Kevin Pillar was hit by a pitch to reload the bases and Aledmys Diaz flew out to left field to end the inning.
The gritty Estrada pitched six innings allowing just one run on four hits with a walk and four strikeouts. His record dropped to 7-13, 5.59 ERA averaging just over five innings per start. Estrada is 0-4 in his last five starts and is 3-6 since returning from the disabled list, where he languished from July 3-29 with a glute strain. He has possibly two more starts as a Blue Jay.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. continued with his solid defence at short and with consistency at bat. The 24-year-old Cuban banged out another two hits, his 20th multihit game of his rookie year. He has 66 hits in his first 60 career games. The 23-year-old McKinney ended the shutout bid with a solo homer in the eighth against former Jays’ reliever Miguel Castro.