O’s split doubleheader with Jays
BALTIMORE — Adam Jones went 4 for 4 with a homer and two RBIs, and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 Monday in the opener of a doubleheader to move within a half-game of the AL East lead.
Ryan Flaherty hit a solo shot for the Orioles, who matched the division-leading New York Yankees in the win column (88). New York was scheduled to play at Minnesota on Monday night.
The victory also solidified Baltimore’s grasp on the top AL wild-card slot over Oakland.
The Blue Jays won the second game, 9-5, behind Edwin Encarnacion’s 41st home run.
With the loss and the Yankees’ 6-3 win over Minnesota, New York gained a 1/2 game in the standings.
Jones’ four hits tied a career high. He’s already reached a career high in homers (32), and his two runs scored put him over 100 for the first time. The All-Star center fielder needs three more RBIs to eclipse his previous high of 83, set last year.
Orioles rookie Steve Johnson (4-0) allowed three hits over five shutout innings to lower his ERA to 1.62. Half his big-league wins have come against Toronto.
Jim Johnson, the fifth Baltimore pitcher, worked the ninth for his 48th save in 51 opportunities.
It was the seventh straight loss for the Blue Jays, matching a season high. Toronto has been outscored 46-17 during the skid, which began during a three-trip to Yankee Stadium and continued in Tampa Bay.
Henderson
Alvarez
(9- 14) gave up four runs, eight hits and three walks in 5 2-3 innings. He’s 2-7 in his last 10 starts.
Johnson allowed two runners to reach in three of the first four innings but escaped damage on each occasion. In the bottom of the fourth, Chris Davis walked and Jones followed with a drive to left to put Baltimore up 2-0.
Flaherty connected in the fifth, and Jones singled in the sixth and came home on a double-play grounder.
Toronto scored in the eighth on an RBI double by Rajai Davis. With runners on second and third and two outs, Darren O’Day came in to strike out Kelly Johnson.
Tigers 6, Royals 2 DETROIT — Justin Verlander breezed through eight innings and Prince Fielder hit a solo homer, helping the Detroit Tigers steady themselves.
Detroit entered one game behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central after being swept in a doubleheader by Minnesota on Sunday. Verlander (16-8) had little trouble with the Royals, who knocked him around for eight runs and 12 hits last month.
The right-hander allowed two runs and nine hits this time, striking out eight without a walk. Jose Valverde pitched the ninth.
Luke Hochevar (8-15) yielded six runs — five earned — and 12 hits in 7 1/3 innings.
Alex Gordon homered for Kansas City.
The Tigers play three more games at home against the Royals before finishing the regular season with a six-game trip to Minnesota and Kansas City.
Fielder opened the scoring in the second with his 28th homer, and Alex Avila hit an RBI double later in the inning.
Gordon’s 12th home run in the fourth cut the lead in half, and the Royals appeared poised to tie it in the fifth when they put runners on first and third with one out.
With Jarrod Dyson batting, Verlander appeared to hurt his left shoulder in bizarre fashion. Avila, the catcher, was making a routine throw back to the pitcher when his arm collided with the hand of plate umpire Bill Welke, causing the ball to scoot low across the ground in front of the mound. Verlander lunged to stop it and grimaced as he got up.
He was able to stay in the game — and struck out Dyson and Alcides Escobar to end the threat.
The Tigers padded their lead in the bottom half with another wacky play. With runners on first and second, Austin Jackson hit an RBI double down the right-field line, and another run came home when Jeff Francoeur’s throw to second skipped away for an error. Gordon, the left fielder, retrieved the ball and easily threw out Jackson trying to advance to third — earning an assist on a play that began on the opposite side of the outfield.
Andy Dirks made it 5-1 with an RBI single in the sixth.
Billy Butler had three hits for the Royals, including an RBI single in the eighth. He’s hitting .396 (21 for 53) off Verlander.
Dirks answered with another RBI single of his own.
Miguel Cabrera singled to extend his hitting streak to 14 games. Nationals 12, Brewers 2
WASHINGTON — According to Washington right fielder Jayson Werth, the way an intense, September afternoon sun turns fly balls at Nationals Park into adventures “borders on ridiculous.”
Well, this time, that “sun monster” helped Werth’s Nationals and hurt the Milwaukee Brewers.
A day after the Nationals misplayed a pair of fly balls in the midday glare, Werth wound up with a two-out, two-run double when Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez lost a ball in the sun to spark a six-run fourth inning Monday, and Washington beat Milwaukee to cut its magic number for winning the NL East to five.
“I don’t remember a worse sun field, worse sun conditions,” said Werth, a major leaguer for a decade. “You almost don’t have a chance out there as the game goes on.”
Jordan Zimmermann (12-8) allowed one run and four hits in 6 2/3 innings in the rare 1:05 p.m. weekday start. He also delivered two hits and drove in a run as a batter for the Nationals, who are a majors-best 9360 and increased their division lead over the Atlanta Braves to five games with nine to play.
“We still have a little ways to go, but if we keep playing baseball the way we’ve been playing, hopefully it’ll happen soon,” said Ryan Zimmerman, who had three hits and four RBIs.
Marco Estrada (4-7) lasted only four innings for the Brewers, who entered the day 2 1/2 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the NL’s second wild-card berth. He allowed seven runs — six earned — and eight hits, and acknowledged that Gomez’s problems on Werth’s ball into the sun caused the righty to lose his composure “a little bit.”
“It felt like it was a blink of an eye,” Estrada said. “I looked up, the score was 2-1, and I was like, `All right, let’s get this guy out. Pop fly.’ Next thing you know, it’s 7-1. I couldn’t believe it.”
As Brewers manager Ron Roenicke put it: “It would’ve been a good game if that ball’s caught.”
Right after Zimmermann’s RBI single broke a 1-all tie, Werth hit a high fly that could have been the third out — but Gomez couldn’t find it.
“It is just a matter of being lucky and not getting a ball hit to you when it’s in your field of vision,” Werth said. “Even then, if the ball is hit to your left early in the game, it goes into the sun. And if it goes to your right later in the game, it goes in the sun. And if it’s hit right at you in the middle of the game, you are in trouble.”
Gomez paused and held his glove up to try to shade his view, then suddenly scrambled to his left and tried to make a diving catch.
The ball smacked off the dark sweat band on his left forearm and trickled away.
“Nothing you can do,” Gomez said.
Roenicke knew his player was having a hard time locating the ball.
“As soon as the ball went up, he was 10 feet off,” Roenicke said. “I was watching the ball, where it was, and watching where he was, and I could tell he was off line.”
After Bryce Harper walked and joined Werth in a double steal, Zimmerman sent a three-run shot to right-center for his 24th homer and a 7-1 lead.
“Once it gets out of hand, it’s tough to keep everybody’s intensity there,” Roenicke said, “and because of it, a lot of things go wrong.”