Orioles rout Gausman, Blue Jays
Mullins’ three hits propel Baltimore
Cedric Mullins had three hits, Tyler Wells pitched six innings to win back-to-back starts for the first time, and the Orioles pounded former Baltimore pitcher Kevin Gausman in a 10-2 win over the host Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday.
Wells (4-4) allowed one run and five hits, completing six innings in consecutive starts for the first time in his career to help the Orioles split the four-game series.
Austin Hays hit his ninth home run, a solo shot off Matt Gage in the eighth, and Rougned Odor had two hits and two RBIs as Baltimore won for the fourth time in six games.
Facing the team that drafted him for the first time, Gausman (5-6) allowed a season-worst seven runs, five earned, and seven hits in 2 innings, his shortest outing of 2022. Gausman, who lost his third straight start, hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any of his 12 previous starts.
Baltimore selected Gausman with the fourth overall pick in 2012 and he spent parts of six seasons with the Orioles, going 39-51 with a 4.22 ERA in 150 games before a deadline trade to Atlanta in 2018.
Toronto’s Teoscar Hernández homered for the second straight game, a solo blast off Wells in the fourth that ended a run of nine straight batters retired.
Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette left after seven innings, one inning after fouling a pitch off his right
foot. The defensive changes included Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. moving from first base to third base for the final two innings.
Mullins led off the first inning with a single, stole second and scored on a fielder’s-choice grounder by Adley Rutschman.
The Orioles broke it open with a six-run, seven-hit third, matching their biggest inning of the season. Mullins had two singles in that inning.
Promotion,demotion: Baltimore optioned struggling left-hander Bruce Zimmerman to Triple-A Norfolk and recalled right-hander Michael Baumann from the Tides. Zimmerman has more home runs allowed (17) than strikeouts (16) over his past seven starts.
Late Wednesday Blue Jays 7, Orioles 6, 10 innings:
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 16th homer of the season, then singled home the winning run in the 10th.
Baltimore rookie Adley Rutschman hit his first MLB
home run and got his first two RBIs, and teammate Ryan Mountcastle homered twice.
Leading off the 10th against Félix Bautista, Guerrero lined a single to left that scored automatic runner Bo Bichette from second base. Guerrero went 3 for 4 and scored three times, and Matt Chapman and Teoscar Hernández each hit two-run homers for the Blue Jays.
Braves 8, Nationals 2: Austin Riley homered twice as Atlanta won its 14th straight game, prevailing in Washington.
Rookie Spencer Strider allowed one hit over 5 innings for Atlanta. Orlando Arcia started at second base in place of the injured Ozzie Albies and had a homer, three singles and a walk. The Braves went deep 13 times and outscored the Nationals 27-11 in sweeping the three-game series.
The Braves matched their 14-game run from July 26 -Aug. 9, 2013, and are one win away from tying the franchise’s post-1900 record, a 15-game winning streak from April 16 to May 2, 2000.