(Toronto) Cedric Mullins hit a double good for two in a five-run 11th inning, and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays 8-3 on Sunday.
Mullins also scored a run in the 10th inning and the Orioles (31-16) earned their fourth straight victory. Austin Hays hit a run-scoring single, and Terrin Vavra added two more runs in the 11th, while Adley Rutschman and Anthony Santander also scored in the third.
Dean Kremer allowed nine hits and two walks, but held the Blue Jays to just one run, striking out seven batters for five and a third innings.
” This is a difficult work. It doesn’t matter who you play against, the East section of the American, the West section of the National, it’s still difficult, said John Schneider, coach of the Blue Jays. Every team is good and it’s hard to win every night.
“If they weren’t competitive and not fighting, you’d be wondering what are you doing. But the effort is there, the results are not. »
Cionel Perez, Mychal Givens, Danny Coulombe, Austin Voth and Mike Baumann exited the Orioles bullpen.
Matt Chapman homered and sacrifice fly and the Blue Jays (25-22) lost their fourth straight game. Whit Merrifield’s 10th-inning single kept the Blue Jays alive, and rookie Nathan Lukes hit his first major league hit after eight seasons in the minor leagues.
Kevin Gausman allowed two runs, six hits and two walks, and struck out four batters in eight innings. Nate Pearson, Yimi Garcia and Anthony Bass relieved Gausman. Garcia conceded defeat.
“Obviously we’re working right now,” Gausman said. The last series have not been very bright for us.
“We play against good teams and you have to be able to tick all the boxes to win a series and obviously we haven’t done that the last two times. »
A 10-game home streak at Rogers Center promised a good early-season test for the Blue Jays, who hosted the Atlanta Braves, and divisional rivals the New York Yankees and Orioles.
The Blue Jays started on a high with a three-game sweep of the Braves, but then lost three of their four games to the Yankees before the Orioles swept them in three games.
With a 4-6 home record, the Blue Jays sit fifth in the American East Division and travel to Tampa Bay on Monday to face the division-leading Rays in a four-game series.
“We’re playing against the team that’s leading the section for the next four days, so we don’t really have time to mope around,” Gausman explained. We are going to Tampa, to play against a very good team and, obviously, we have to turn things around.
“That’s the good thing about baseball, you don’t even have time to think, you know? »