O’s blank Blue Jays, 4-0, pull even in wild-card race
TORONTO — Ubaldo Jimenez dazzled through 6 2/3 innings as the Baltimore Orioles blanked the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-0, on Thursday night in a matchup between the top teams in the American League wild-card race.
Jimenez (8-12) allowed just one hit — to the first batter he faced — walked three and struck out five to help Baltimore pull even with the Jays atop the AL wild-card standings with three games left on both teams’ schedules.
Hyun Soo Kim and Matt Wieters drove in a run apiece on base hits and Manny Machado hit a sac fly for the Orioles (87-72).
Marcus Stroman (9-10) allowed four runs on nine hits through seven-plus innings. The righthander, who surpassed 200 innings on the season to become the only Blue Jays starter to reach that milestone this year, also struck out three and walked two.
Ezequiel Carrera, in the leadoff spot for a third straight night, had the Blue Jays (87-72) only hit off Jimenez. Kevin Pillar added a single in the eighth and Edwin Encarnacion had a double in the ninth, both off reliever Brad Brach.
Jose Bautista, in what could have been his last home game in a Toronto uniform, was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.
Toronto closes out the regular season with a three-game road series in Boston starting Friday. The Orioles play the Yankees in New York.
Detroit, which is 1½ games back of Toronto and Baltimore, had its home game against Cleveland postponed due to rain earlier Thursday. The Tigers take on Atlanta this weekend before playing the makeup game against the Indians on Monday.
Baltimore got out to a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Machado plated J.J. Hardy on a sac fly. Hardy had led off the inning with a double and advanced to third on a groundout.
The Orioles extended the lead in the next inning when Chris Davis scored on a force out from Michael Bourn. Toronto’s Josh Donaldson tried to turn a doubleplay on Bourn’s ground ball, but his throw to second was high, forcing Devon Travis to leap to catch it before getting the out.
The sellout crowd of 47,791 didn’t agree with home plate umpire’s Angel Hernandez’s strike zone for much of the night. They booed loudly when Bautista was caught looking on a seemingly outside pitch for a strikeout in the fourth inning.
Fans voiced their displeasure again in the seventh when a Stroman pitch to Bourn was called ball 3. Bourn walked on the next pitch, stole second and later scored on Kim’s single.
Wieters made it 4-0 with his RBI single off Stroman in the eighth, driving home Mark Trumbo doubled to get on.
The Blue Jays had chances early. They had runners on first and second with nobody out in the first inning but a fly out, strikeout and groundout ended the threat. Then Travis led off the third with a walk and advanced to second on a Carrera sac bunt. He was stranded there following back-to-back groundouts from Donaldson and Encarnacion.