Caleb Joseph's RBI single with two outs in the top of the ninth broke a 2-2 tie, and the Baltimore Orioles (34-33) added two more to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays (37-32) 5-3 Saturday afternoon.
With J.J. Hardy on second and Ryan Flaherty on first, Joseph lined one into center field to bring Hardy home with the go-ahead run. The play at the plate was close, but Hardy beat the tag of catcher Russell Martin. After a pitching change, Manny Machado added two more runs with a double off the left-field wall that scored Flaherty and Joseph to give the Orioles a 5-2 lead.
The Blue Jays did not go down easily in the bottom of the ninth, however. They got two men on with nobody out and then second and third with one out. Jose Bautista singled home Danny Valencia to make it 5-3, but the Blue Jays would score no more. Orioles closer Zach Britton induced a 4U-3 double-play ground ball from Edwin Encarnacion to end the threat and the game.
Baltimore got single runs in the tops of the first and sixth. In the first, Adam Jones drove home a run with an RBI force out, and a sixth-inning sacrifice fly from Delmon Young scored Machado. The Blue Jays challenged the safe call at the plate, but umpires upheld the call, and Machado's run tied the score at 2-2.
Toronto also scored single runs twice. In the bottom of the first, Encarnacion's sacrifice fly brought home Jose Reyes, and a wild pitch from Baltimore's Kevin Gausman allowed Martin to score and give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead in the second.
Toronto had a late major opportunity slip away. In the bottom of the eighth, they loaded the bases off Darren O'Day with no outs on two hits and a walk. O'Day then struck out Martin, Dioner Navarro, and Kevin Pillar in succession to get out of the jam. Navarro launched a ball into the third deck but barely foul. Umpires reviewed the play and upheld the call. A ruling of fair would have resulted in a grand slam and a 6-2 lead for Toronto.
O'Day (W: 3-0, 1.00 ERA) then benefited from his team's ninth-inning rally for the win. Britton (S: 19) got into and out of trouble in the ninth to notch the save. He allowed three hits and a run but got the double play when he needed it most.
Aaron Loup (L: 2-4, 4.78) suffered the loss, getting charged with all three ninth-inning runs in 2/3 of an inning. He allowed two hits and struck out one.
Both starters pitched well. Toronto's Mark Buehrle allowed two runs on six hits in seven innings while walking one and fanning five. Baltimore's Gausman pitched five innings. He allowed two runs on four hits with one walk and one strikeout.
The series concludes Sunday with Chris Tillman (5-7, 5.58) pitching for the Orioles against Toronto's Scott Copeland (1-1, 2.57). Game time is 1:07 p.m. EDT.
