Win streak hits bump in Baltimore
The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 6-3 loss in Baltimore on Friday night:
The baseball gods are a mischievous bunch.
The Blue Jays rolled into Baltimore to face the worst team in the major leagues. They had won eight straight games, including a four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium in which they never trailed. They had their Cy Young contender on the mound. You could almost see it coming.
Baltimore’s Cedric Mullins led off the bottom of the first inning by turning on a 3-1 fastball from Robbie Ray and depositing it 408 feet away in deep right-centre field. After one Orioles hitter, the Jays found themselves behind in a game for the first time in a week. They hadn’t trailed since Marcus Semien came to the plate last Friday night, and hit a walk-off home run to spark what would be a weekend sweep of the Oakland A’s.
Four batters later, the Jays were down three runs thanks to a two-out, two-run homer by Ryan McKenna. (Four of the first seven hitters Ray faced got extra-base hits.)
The first inning finally ended when Jahmai Jones, who had reached when Bo Bichette threw away his routine ground ball, stole second and Alejandro Kirk fired the ball into centre field. Jones took off for third but was thrown out by Jarrod Dyson as “Yakety Sax” played in the background. á Not a merry return: Julian Merryweather blew the doors off at the beginning of the season, saving two games in the Bronx on the opening weekend while overpowering the Yankees with his tripledigit fastball.
After spending most of the next five months on the injured list, the tall right-hander was back on the mound Friday night, called in to preserve a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning.
With his fastball touching 98 miles per hour, Merryweather threw a 3-2 changeup to Trey Mancini and missed, issuing a two-out walk and bringing Anthony Santander to the plate.
His first pitch missed, and it was the first fastball he’d thrown that was under 97. The next fastball, at just 94, wound up in the seats, a game-winning three-run home run. á Tempers flare: In the bottom of the second inning, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde took great offence to, well, something in the bottom of the second inning and engaged in an angry, one-sided war of words with Ray.
With runners on the corners and nobody out, Ray was ahead of Baltimore’s ninth-place hitter, Richie Martin, a ball and two strikes.
“Shut up, D.J.!” was heard from the field, perhaps directed at Orioles outfielder D.J. Stewart, who was in the dugout.
The cameras at Oriole Park didn’t pick up who yelled, but that, combined with Ray looking into the Baltimore dugout, set Hyde off.
“What are you gonna do, Robbie?” the Baltimore skipper yelled. “We can’t say anything? Pitch the f---ing ball, we didn’t say s---!”
Ray struck out Martin on the next pitch, and Hyde got even more agitated as Ray took his time getting back in position to pitch to the next hitter.
“What are you looking at? Get your back ass on the mound,” Hyde screamed, so upset that he couldn’t put his words in the right order. “We didn’t say s--- in here.” At one point, Ray appeared to invite Hyde out to the mound to continue the discussion, but Hyde never moved from the corner of the dugout.
The exchange appeared to get Ray back on track — he didn’t give up another run before giving way to Adam Cimber in the fifth.
After the game, Ray said he found it curious that Baltimore hitters were laying off his slider so much, which could have explained the “Shut up, D.J.” He may have believed Stewart was relaying signs to the batters.
Orioles pitcher Fernando Abad ran into Lourdes Gurriel Jr. as the Jays left fielder scored the tying run in the sixth inning. Abad appeared to be going after an errant throw towards the Toronto dugout and when he saw Gurriel almost on top of him, he stopped and braced for impact. Gurriel, who was giving away at least 20 pounds, bounced right off and appeared to hurt his shoulder, but stayed in the game.