Orioles strike first, cruise to 9
TORONTO -- This time of the year in Toronto, fans typically are gearing up for preseason hockey camps and satisfying their need for sports with the Canadian Football League. In other words, the Blue Jays haven't been relevant this late in the season in a long time.
So when the first-place Orioles arrived Tuesday to open a three-game series between the top two teams in the American League East standings, there was some unusual buzz at the Rogers Centre. Fans lined the ticket counter four hours before the game. A local newspaper's back-page headline touted the meeting as the 'Biggest series ever.'
The Orioles, however, wasted no time taking control of the series and sucking the energy out of the home crowd Tuesday, posting their best offensive output in more than two months in a 9-3 win over the Blue Jays in front of an announced 36,183.
With the win, the Orioles (64-48) took a five-game lead over the Blue Jays in the AL East and they are now a season-high 16 games over .500. Since dropping two of three in Oakland to begin the second half, the Orioles have won 11 of their last 15 games to take control of the division.
The Orioles' climb to the top of the division has been mostly been centered around the team's strong pitching -- especially during a recent stretch in which the club scored four runs or fewer in 13 of 15 games. But the Orioles' nine runs Tuesday were their most since a 9-4 win over the Houston Astros on June 1.
Road tripping to Toronto seems to awaken the Orioles' offense, which has scored 33 runs in four games here this season.
Orioles manager Buck Showalter shuffled his batting order to take advantage of favorable matchups against Toronto left-hander Mark Buehrle. Showalter put designated hitter Delmon Young -- a career .396 hitter against Buehrle -- in the cleanup spot for the second time in the last three games and dropped struggling slugger Chris Davis to the seventh spot.
And an Orioles team that leads the majors with 136 home runs -- one more than Toronto -- received its power supply from the bottom third of the lineup, getting homers from Davis and back-to-back solo shots from No. 8 hitter Caleb Joseph and No. 9 hitter Jonathan Schoop.
Joseph and Schoop's blasts led off the fourth inning against Buehrle, who suffered his second-shortest outing of the season, lasting just four innings and giving up four runs and 13 base runners (10 hits and three walks). In six starts against the Orioles over the past two seasons, Buehrle (11-8) is 1-5 with a 6.25 ERA.
Davis, who entered the game hitting just .195, hit a solo home run in the fifth inning, his 18th of the season. It was Davis' 20th homer against the Blue Jays since the beginning of the 2012 season, and his 23 career homers against Toronto are his most against any opponent.
The back-to-back homers by Joseph and Schoop off Buehrle -- which both came on 2-2 counts -- marked the fourth time this season that the Orioles have hit back-to-back homers and the first time it came from the bottom two spots in the order.
Joseph, whose homer opened a three-run fourth inning, has now hit a home run in his last three games after hitting just three homers in his first 48 games with the Orioles.
After Schoop's homer put the Orioles up, 3-0, Young drove in Nick Markakis with a two-out RBI single on a ball that bounced past third baseman Danny Valencia. Young also scored the game's first run in the third inning on J.J. Hardy 's two-out double into the right-center gap. Hardy added an RBI single in the eighth.
Right-hander Bud Norris (9-7) allowed two or fewer runs for the seventh time over his last nine starts, but he was pulled after just 5 1/3 innings (84 pitches). He gave up two runs and seven hits while striking out six batters and walking two.
Norris, who has won six of his last eight decisions, made just one mistake on the night, hanging an 0-1 curveball to Colby Rasmus that he hit over the right-field fence for a two-run homer with two outs in the fourth.
Davis hit his first homer since July 25 off Toronto reliever Aaron Sanchez with a blast to right-center field. Nelson Cruz then broke a 1-for-34 stretch with an RBI single in the sixth off Sanchez and added a sacrifice fly in the eighth. Cruz has 12 RBIs in four games in Toronto this season.
Jose Bautista represented the tying run when he came to the plate for the Blue Jays (60-54) with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
But right-hander Tommy Hunter limited the damage to just one run, holding Bautista to a sacrifice fly to right field and inducing an inning-ending double play from Dioner Navarro.
That run, charged to left-hander Brian Matusz, was the only run the Orioles bullpen allowed in 3 2/3 innings Tuesday.
eencina@baltsun.com http://ift.tt/1hGJAWE
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