Despite a tense finish, Jays finish off sweep of Orioles

Orioles 6 Blue Jays 7

After two bad starts in a row, I wasn't sure what we would get from Drew Hutchison tonight. As it turned out, I shouldn't have worried. He had a perfect game through 5 innings, before a Manny Machado home runs leading off the 6th (thanks ML), but by then he had a big lead. He gave up a run in both the 6th and 7th. In all 8 innings, 4 hits, 2 earned, no walks and 7 strikeouts.

Unfortunately, Drew didn't pitch the 9th. Liam Hendriks started the 9th, and gave up 3 singles around a walk. Hendriks out and Miguel Castro in. Castro gave up a 3-run homer to Manny Machado to make us all sweat, but Danny Valencia made a very nice catch in left, off a Steve Pearce line drive and Castro got Ryan Lavanway to strike out to end the game and get (but not earn) his 4th save. If you can give up a 3-run homer and get a save, there is a problem

Our offense really enjoys facing Oriole pitching. We scored 3 runs in the 3rd and 4th innings and added another in the 5th.

• In the 3rd we had a lead off walk from Danny Valencia, a single from Kevin Pillar and a sac bunt for Jose Reyes. A Devon Travis ground ball to first got us our first run, when O's first baseman made a poor throw home. Pillar tried to score from second, but he was out easy. Josh Donaldson followed with a crushed 2 run homer.
• In the 4th we had back-to-back walked to start the inning from Justin Smoak and Russell Martin, then back-to-back doubles from Danny Valencia and Pillar.
• In the 5th Donaldson led off with a double and scored on Martin's double.

In all we had 7 hits and 8 walks. Donaldson and Pillar had 2 hits each. Justin Smoak took a base on balls 3 times.

Jays of the Day are Hutchison (.227 WPA), Donaldson (.162) and Valencia (.095, plus the nice catch). Pillar gets honorable mention for his .093 but since he made the mistake of trying to score I'm not giving him the JoD.

Suckage....well no one has the number, but I'm giving Hendriks and Castro a shared suckage.

The Jays fly out to Tampa Bay, I hope they can sleep on the flight, for a weekend series with the Rays. We should see Michael Saunders at some point in this series.

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