An inning that rewrote records
You may already know how it went, but it’s worth repeating.
The seventh inning was a frame to remember in the Blue Jays’ doubleheader sweep of the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday night.
The Jays, remarkably, had been no-hit through six innings in the second game by Orioles starter Keegan Akin, who entered with a 7.00 ERA for the season and 6.75 ERA against the Jays.
“Their guy was doing an outstanding job ... getting people out, off-balance,” Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said postgame.
But after pulling out the opener of the twinbill in the final inning on George Springer’s two-run home run, they did it again — and more.
Single. Home run. Single.
The Jays took a 2-1 lead and Akin gave way to another lefthander, hard-throwing Tanner Scott.
Homer. Single. Single. Sacrifice fly. Single. Homer. Single.
Suddenly they were up 8-1.
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde signalled for righty Manny Barreda.
Single. Home run.
The Jays started that final inning 11-for-11, including four home runs, and crossed the plate 11 times before it came to a close with two walks and a pair of line-outs.
Springer, in his first season as a Jay after seven years with the Houston Astros, said he’d never seen anything like it.
“That was wild,” said Springer, who contributed a single to that rally. “The at-bats by Vladdy (Guerrero, who ended the no-hit bid with a single) and Bo (Bichette, who homered next) obviously are that whole inning. I just think it was one of those things where it just got contagious and you just saw quality at-bat after quality at-bat.”
The list of records broken or tied includes:
á Most hits and runs in a fourth inning or later by any MLB team that entered the frame with no hits, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
á First team to hit a go-ahead homer while trailing in the final scheduled inning of both games of a doubleheader.
á Multiple hits in the same inning by three players for the first time in Jays history: Guerrero (two singles), Bichette and Teoscar Hernández (both with a homer and single).
á The 11 runs matched the team record for any inning, accomplished three other times: July 20, 1984 (ninth inning, Seattle), April 26, 1995 (second, Oakland) and July 25, 2007 (sixth, Minnesota).
á Four home runs in the frame (Bichette, Hernández, Alejandro Kirk and Marcus Semien) also tied a franchise mark, first set on Aug. 17, 2001 against Texas.
For Montoyo, at 55 a baseball lifer, it was almost unbelievable: “It’s something I’ve never seen.”