The Orioles built a cushion early Friday night, then spent the back half of the game trying to hang on to it. In the end, they did just enough, beating the Blue Jays 7-4 in the opener of the series despite a messy finish that brought the tying run to the plate.
Dylan Beavers jump-started the night almost immediately. Batting leadoff, he needed just two pitches from Max Scherzer before launching his seventh home run of the season over the right-field fence. That made it 1-0 Orioles, and from there they never fell behind.
The real damage came in the second inning, when Baltimore strung together six straight hits against Scherzer in a five-run frame. Gunnar Henderson started it with a leadoff single, and the next five Orioles all followed with knocks of their own.
Heston Kjerstad drove in a run, while Colton Cowser and Beavers each knocked in two. By the time the inning was over, Scherzer had done something he had never done before in his 498th MLB game: he allowed six consecutive hits.
That surge should have made the night a lot calmer than it was. Instead, Toronto kept poking at Chris Bassitt and the Orioles’ bullpen, and the game stayed twitchy all the way through.
Bassitt had trouble settling in from the start. After getting the first out, he allowed a single to George Springer and a walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., creating an early threat.
But Guerrero was caught off first on a back pick from catcher Samuel Basallo, with Pete Alonso applying the tag. That mattered, because Bassitt then walked Alejandro Kirk; without the pickoff, the bases would have been loaded with one out.
Basallo’s defense also came into play in the inning’s final sequence. After Bassitt got a strikeout pitch past Nathan Lukes that the umpire missed, Basallo appeared to start an ABS challenge before backing off. The umpire went ahead and took up the challenge anyway, and the call was overturned to strike three.
Toronto finally broke through in the fourth. Third baseman Kazuma Okamoto led off by crushing Bassitt’s 1-0 pitch for his 31st homer of the season.
Bassitt labored through five innings, allowing two runs on six hits and three walks, and he had a pitch count high enough that Craig Albernaz had to keep navigating carefully after that. Albernaz sent Bassitt back out to begin the sixth, then removed him after a single and a double.
Josh Walker entered and steadied things. He struck out one batter and got a groundout that still scored a run from third, but he kept the inning from spiraling and finished it with a flyout to Colton Cowser in center. That left Baltimore in decent shape, leading 6-2.
The Orioles added a little more breathing room in the seventh when Coby Mayo lined a solo homer off Braydon Fisher, giving Baltimore a 7-2 edge. It was Mayo’s 23rd home run, and it came against a reliever who has been effective for Toronto this year. Mayo has been on a serious tear lately, slugging .576 over his last 30 games, .654 over his last 15, and .826 over his last seven.
Even with that insurance, the final innings were anything but clean. Alex Hoppe got two outs quickly in the ninth, then couldn’t close the door.
He threw 20 pitches after getting the second out, and the Blue Jays made him pay for it. Brett Bateman hit a two-run homer to cut the lead to 7-4, and Hoppe allowed the next two hitters to reach as well.
Rico Garcia was called in to finish the job. He made Alejandro Kirk foul off four pitches before Kirk rolled an easy grounder to second, ending it. Garcia picked up his eighth save.
The Orioles moved to 72-76 with the win. They gained a game on one of the clubs ahead of them, though their path from here still depends on results elsewhere.
What they can control is simple: keep winning, and keep winning often. They’ll try again Saturday afternoon at 3:07, when Kyle Bradish starts for Baltimore.
The Blue Jays have not listed a starter as of this writing.
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