*Photo from Reuters*
Birds vs Birds? Advantage to the birds. Anthony Santander homered, Austin Hays homered twice, and the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Toronto Blue Jays with a 7-2 victory Monday night in Toronto.
The Orioles offense combined to hit 4 home runs in the game, improving to 31-11 in games with more than one home run. The Orioles also improved to 12-4 against AL East opponents, while Hays and Santander found their strokes at the plate with 3 home runs between them.
Orioles pitcher Grayson Rodriguez said of Hays and Santander that "Those are two big pieces of our lineup, and for them to get hot is huge for us, especially for this stretch coming up. It’s going to be a team effort. It’s going to take everybody. And when they’re swinging the bat well, things are going to go good for us."
Santander got the Orioles a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, hitting a two run home run down the right field line. In the bottom half of the inning, Daulton Varsho got the Blue Jays on the board, cutting the deficit in half with an RBI triple. Colton Cowser made it a 3-1 lead for the Orioles in the top of the 4th with an RBI double.
The next batter after Cowser was Hays, who hit a two run home run to make it 5-1 Orioles. In the bottom of the 4th, Vladimir Guerrero Jr got the Blue Jays to a 5-2 deficit with a solo home run. Hays hit his second home run of the game in the 7th, a solo shot to make it 6-2. Ramon Urias made it 7-2 in the 9th with a solo homer of his own.
Rodriguez was the starting pitcher for the Orioles, allowing two runs on 7 hits with 4 strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings pitched, getting the win. Yennier Cano came out of the bullpen and delivered 1 1/3 scoreless innings before Keegan Akin worked the 9th to seal the win.
The starting pitcher for Toronto was Kevin Gausman, who gave up 6 runs on 6 hits and a walk in 6 1/3 innings. Brendon Little worked a scoreless inning before Ryan Burr allowed a run in 1 2/3 innings out of the bullpen.
Gausman said after his start "That’s one of the most frustrating things about today. My stuff is a lot better than it has been. Obviously, the outcome wasn’t what it has been. That’s baseball sometimes. This is obviously a very good lineup and I only feel like I made two mistakes. Both of them left the park. When guys are on base, that’s just the reality of the game."
The second game of 4 in the series is set for Tuesday night. The Orioles trot out their ace Corbin Burnes to make the start while Trevor Richards will serve as the starter for the Blue Jays in what appears to be a bullpen game.
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