I guess the only good thing to take away from the O’s recent four-game stay in Toronto is that they are still ten games above .500 even after dropping three of four against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Despite hitting 12 home runs and racking up 24 runs over the past four games in Ontario, the O’s have now dropped three games in a row following their recent five-game winning streak.
As a result, the 1.5-game lead for first place over the Red Sox in the AL East that the O’s had coming into Toronto has vanished, and the O’s will head to Boston now tied for the division lead with their long-loathed rivals.
The series got off to an excellent start after yet another comeback win for the Birds on Thursday night, their 20th of the 2016 season.
Down 5-3 in the sixth inning, Pedro Alvarez launched a solo homer to cut the O’s deficit to just one run before Chris Davis hit his 13th homer of the campaign to level the score at 5-5 in the seventh. Davis would bring in the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, and Zach Britton would lock up his 19th save directly after to give the O’s a 6-5 win in the series opener and a fifth consecutive victory.
The O’s would have to come back again after falling behind 2-0 on a solo shot from Michael Saunders in the fourth inning Friday, and it seemed like they would do just that.
After Jonathan Schoop went yard in the fifth inning to cut the lead in half, Davis would launch a go-ahead two run shot in the sixth to give the O’s a 3-2 lead.
But it wasn’t to last, as Russell Martin leveled the score with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. A few frames later, Edwin Encarnacion would snap an 0-for-19 skid with a walk-off blast off of Brad Brach in the tenth inning to give the Blue Jays a 4-3 victory.
The theme continued in Saturday’s matinee. Facing a 3-0 deficit going into the top of the fourth inning, Joey Rickard would open the scoring with his 5th home run of the season before the red-hot Davis equalized with a two-run homer.
Manny Machado’s 16th home run of the campaign to give the O’s a 4-3 lead in the top of the sixth was the last highlight of the afternoon for the O’s. After this, it was just miserable.
The Jays opened the floodgates with a five-run outburst in the bottom of the sixth, highlighted by a massive three-run homer from Encarnacion.
The O’s pegged two runs back to cut the score to 9-6 in the eighth inning, but another homer from Encarnacion, his third in less than 24 hours, and another from Michael Saunders in the bottom of the eighth put the game to rest at 11-6 Toronto.
And even though Ubaldo Jimenez (0.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 1 K) virtually gave the Orioles no chance of coming back after his colossal meltdown in the first inning on Sunday, they tried valiantly anyway. And they almost made it happen twice.
Down 7-1 in the fourth inning, Pedro Alvarez got the potential comeback brewing with a solo home run before the O’s unleashed a four run barrage in the fifth inning. Adam Jones got the party started with a solo homer, followed by Davis blasting a two-run homer to cut the Jays lead to 7-5. Matt Wieters would join in on the fun with a solo shot to reduce the lead to just one at 7-6 going into the top of the sixth.
And that’s where the hope went to die, I guess. Martin delivered the knockout blow by way of a three-run blast off of Mychal Givens to give the Jays a 10-6 advantage.
Even though a two-run shot from Adam Jones in the eighth inning made things interesting, the O’s comeback attempt fell just short as the O’s left the tying run ninety feet away in the ninth and the Jays hun on to take home a win in the 10-9 thriller.
As tough as it was to watch the O’s drop three straight to an in-division foe, you really have to admire the fight and the heart that this squad has. They never, ever quit. And it’s not all bad; your O’s are still tied for first place.
Now, let’s take a look at the key points of the O’s trip to Ontario:
Just as it seemed as if the Orioles pitching staff was finally starting to show some cohesiveness and consistency on all fronts, the O’s staff, primarily the rotation, had a nightmare of a trip to Toronto.
– After allowing just nine earned runs during their previous six starts, the O’s starters have allowed nine in just 5.1 innings over the past two games. To make matters worse, the rotation’s ERA versus Toronto was a dreadful 8.42.
– And as excellent as the O’s bullpen has been this season, even they weren’t free from blame. The O’s relievers registered a woeful 7.21 ERA against the Blue Jays. After allowing just four earned runs over the previous eight games (25.0 IP), the Orioles bullpen has allowed 12 runs over the past two games.
– In total, the O’s pitching staff allowed 21 runs over the last two games against the Jays. They only allowed 12 runs over the six games prior to Saturday.
But if it’s any consolation, the O’s offense continued their recent surge during their trip across the Northern Border. The O’s offense registered 24 runs and a stellar 12 homers over the four-game series while boasting a .279 batting average.
– After their fireworks display in Canada, the Orioles dynamic offense has hit 30 home runs over the past eleven games, and now boast the title of current HR-kings of the big leagues with 99 HR.
– The O’s are currently projected to hit 259 homers, just in case you were wondering.
– After going on a superb run of scoring 81 runs over the past 12 games (6.75 runs per game), the Orioles offense ranks third-best in the AL in runs per game (4.82).
But seriously, where do we begin? Jones went 4-for-18 with two homers and three RBI. Machado went 7-for-19 with three doubles, one homer and two RBI. Alvarez went 4-for-7 with two home runs and three RBI. Schoop went 6-for-15 with two doubles, one homer and two RBI.
And then of course, there’s Chris Davis, who went 6-for-13 with four homers and nine RBI versus the Jays after homering in his fifth consecutive game on Sunday.
Long story short, the Orioles got nice production from almost the entire line-up, and when a series is almost ‘’all-around bad,’’ it’s all about taking the positives and moving on. Here’s to more of this becoming a trend in winning efforts going down the stretch.
And here’s to the Orioles bouncing back with a strong showing at Fenway in their upcoming clash for first place in the AL East.
