Springer pinch-hit opens the floodgates

Three things you need to know about the Blue Jays’ 6-1 win over the Orioles at Rogers Centre on Wednesday:

Good morning

The Jays came into Wednesday’s game having lost six of seven games, scoring just nine runs over their last five games. They managed just two hits and a walk against Orioles starter Austin Voth and it appeared as though they might waste a tremendous pitching performance by Ross Stripling, but then the seventh inning happened.

The Jays jumped all over three Baltimore relievers and scored more runs in that one inning than they had in any of their 10 previous games. It started with a big hit in a big spot.

George Springer pinch-hit for Raimel Tapia with two on and one out and muscled a single to short centre to drive in the game’s first run. It was Springer’s 1,000th career big-league hit and his first as a pinch-hitter in 23 tries. Santiago Espinal followed with a two-run double and Alejandro Kirk ripped another two-run double to cap the six-run frame.

Strip-tacular

Stripling started with a six-pitch first inning and dominated from there. The right-hander, fresh off the injured list, set down the first 18 batters he faced, taking a perfect game into the seventh inning. The best chance for a Baltimore hit over the first six was a 101-m.p.h. grounder off the bat of Rougned Odor, on which Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made a great pick and outraced Odor to the bag.

After two first-inning flyouts, the Orioles didn’t hit another ball out of the infield against Stripling until the seventh, when Cedric Mullins led off with a soft line single to centre.

Play of the game

Bo Bichette made a terrific barehanded pick of a Ryan Mountcastle chopper, throwing out the Jays killer for the second out of the seventh inning. If that ball had gotten through, the Orioles would have taken a 1-0 lead. Instead, Mullins stopped at third and Yimi Garcia struck out the next hitter, Austin Hays, setting the stage for the Jays’ big inning.