On Wednesday, the Baltimore Orioles did what they do best – strikeout a ton, hit a few homers, and hand the ball to Zach Britton.
After dropping the first contest of their pivotal three-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays, the O’s entered the game needing a win to maintain their slim Wild Card lead over the surging Detroit Tigers.
For much of the game, Toronto appeared to be in control. Francisco Liriano (baseball’s closest thing to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) had one of those performances that makes fans believe he could be one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Over the course of 6 1/3 scoreless innings, the occasional ace allowed six hits (all singles), walked just one, and struck out 10 batters. He left the game with a two-run lead.
Brett Cecil followed, retiring three batters in order, two via strikeout.
With right-handed hitters Manny Machado, Mark Trumbo, and Trey Mancini due up, Cecil was pulled for righty Jason Grilli.
The journeyman reliever got Machado to ground out to short for the second out of the inning bringing Trumbo to the plate.
After missing low and away with a slider for ball one, Grilli challenged him with a fastball at the letters. As he has done many times this year, Trumbo absolutely unloaded on the ball, launching it far over the left-field wall and into the second deck, cutting the lead to one. The home run was his Major League-leading 46th.
Pedro Alvarez, pinch-hitting for Mancini, followed with double. Grilli was able to escape with the lead, though, as catcher Matt Wieters flew out to left, ending the threat.
In the bottom of the ninth, Toronto called on Roberto Osuna, their criminally-underrated 21-year-old closer. After striking out J.J. Hardy to start the inning, he surrendered a single to Jonathan Schoop.
With one on and one out, O’s manager called on Korean-import Hyun Soo Kim to pinch-hit for Nolan Reimold. After a marathon nine-pitch at-bat, Kim turned on an inside fastball. Right fielder Jose Bautista gave chase but watched in disbelief as the ball cleared the wall for a two-run, go-ahead homer.
In the bottom of the ninth, Britton made quick work of the Jays, striking out the first two batters he faced and getting the third to ground out softly to second.
With the win, Baltimore is now one game behind Toronto for the first Wild Card and one game ahead of Detroit for the second Wild Card.
Ubaldo Jimenez and Marcus Stroman will meet for the rubber match tonight.
Scott Ferris covers all things baseball as a Staff Writer for Outside Pitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottHFerris
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