The Orioles needed a clean Saturday in Toronto. Instead, they left Rogers Centre with another setback and a shrinking margin for error.
Baltimore fell to the Blue Jays, 7-3, in the middle game of a three-game set, a loss that cost them a chance to lock up the series and left them sitting at 72-77 with 13 games remaining. Entering the day, the Orioles were three games behind Cleveland, which was 75-73, for the final American League Wild Card spot.
The first inning offered a brief hint that Baltimore might be ready to take control. The Orioles loaded the bases with two outs, but Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s flyout to the warning track in right ended the threat.
Toronto made them pay almost immediately. The Blue Jays scored twice in the bottom of the first, and starter Spencer Miles then settled in by striking out the side in the second. From there, the home team stayed in front the rest of the way.
Kyle Bradish’s birthday start turned into a short and rough afternoon. The right-hander, who turned 30 on Saturday, lasted just three innings and gave up five runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out two.
Baltimore did get a late jolt from Pete Alonso. The first baseman launched a two-run homer off the foul pole in left in the seventh inning, his 35th of the season and 299th of his career, but it only trimmed the deficit. Toronto answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning and finished off the scoring from there.
In Other News...
Orioles Suddenly Have A Kyle Bradish Problem They Can't Ignore
Kyle Bradishs season ended the way the Orioles could least afford it, with another trip to the injured list and another reminder of how unstable their rotation has been. Baltimore placed the right-hander on the 15-day IL because of lower abdominal discomfort, a move that effectively shuts him down after a difficult finish to the year. He went 7-14 with a 4.12 ERA and 142 strikeouts across 29 starts, and his recent outings never really gave the club much reason to expect a late lift.
Yaramil Hiraldo was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to take the roster spot, but the larger issue is what Bradishs absence means for a team that has been trying to hold its pitching together. For an Orioles staff that already needed reliability, losing one of its key starters at this stage leaves another thin layer peeled away, and it comes at a time when Baltimore can least afford more uncertainty on the mound. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Wild Card Hopes Keep Fading After Another Brutal Loss
The Orioles had an early opening at Rogers Centre, loading the bases in the first inning, but the big chance came and went without a run. Baltimore kept chasing from there, and Toronto finally took control in the fifth before rolling to an 8-1 win that left the Orioles at 72-78 and drifting farther behind the Guardians in the Wild Card race.
For a club trying to stay relevant in September, the frustration was less about one bad night than the pattern underneath it. Baltimore could not cash in when it mattered, and the Blue Jays made them pay by turning a tense game into a comfortable one in the middle innings, another reminder that the margin for error keeps shrinking with every loss. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Just Got A Reminder How Little Margin They Have
Torontos stumble in the opener was a useful one-night reminder for Baltimore of just how quickly the American League wild-card picture can shift. The Blue Jays arrived having won four straight, then dropped into a stretch where they had lost four of five, leaving them two games behind Cleveland for the third wild-card spot and just one game ahead of the Orioles entering Saturday.
Baltimore could not assume that edge would hold for long. The Jays answered in the next game with a 7-3 win, and even with some defensive mistakes mixed in, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk supplied the kind of offense that can erase a deficit in a hurry. For the Orioles, it was another glimpse at the narrow margin separating them from the group they are trying to chase down. [Read more 🡒]