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The Toronto Blue Jays just can’t stop walking (off).
Beating the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 in a tight, back-and-forth affair on Saturday afternoon, the Blue Jays have now won three straight games -- a first for the team since May 1.
Luke Maile walked in the bottom of the tenth with the bases loaded to win it. It was the Blue Jay’s third extra-inning game in their last four outings, and their second walk-off victory.
The Blue Jays now have the chance to sweep the Orioles in four games tomorrow afternoon, even if it doesn’t mean much against a 19-44 team. It’s still better than losing to a 19-44 team.
Aaron Sanchez, up until the seventh inning, had a stellar start; he gave up two earned runs in 6.1 innings, one of which was allowed by Danny Barnes, who came on in relief.
Still, he struggled with walks, giving up four free passes. This season, five of his 12 starts have had four or more walks, and five have had less than four strikeouts. In his last start, however, Sanchez pitched five innings and walked only one — but still allowed seven runs.
Randal Grichuk hit a home run on the first pitch that the Blue Jays’ saw after the Orioles tied the game at two in the seventh inning. He also was hit by a pitch in the tenth, which helped lead to the walk-off.
Grichuk, before the game, was hitting .429 in his four games since returning from the disabled list, and his home run helped keep that hot streak alive. His BABIP is .364, so he’s benefiting from a bit of luck. It also might just be me, but it also seems like his defense is also much improved.
The Orioles tied the game on a wild pitch in the eighth inning charged to Tyler Clippard; thankfully, it was all that they got, and although they had two on in the ninth and one on in the tenth, they didn’t score again.
In the ninth, Toronto’s win probability was below 30%. It quickly shot up.
Jays of the Day: Axford (.289), Maile (.197).
Suckage: Biagini (-.145), Pillar (-.113).
The GameThread had 505 comments today, with TimmyMax at the top. Yay!
| # | Commenter | # Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | TimmyMax | 87 |
| 2 | Alan F. | 71 |
| 3 | Drinkin' Wit' Terrell Farley | 59 |
| 4 | DangYouToHeck | 49 |
| 5 | Link Floyd | 47 |
| 6 | Kate Stanwick | 43 |
| 7 | Matt W | 40 |
| 8 | BlueJayEMT | 29 |
| 9 | fishedin | 11 |
| 10 | Bluebirdfan | 10 |
| 11 | lalalaprise | 9 |
| 12 | westbromjayfan | 8 |
| 13 | radivel | 6 |
| 14 | Kevin Dunphy | 6 |
| 15 | smallmj | 5 |
| 16 | JUK | 5 |
| 17 | barraqudie | 4 |
| 18 | Ducey66 | 3 |
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| 24 | Pillar for President | 1 |
| 25 | hoph | 1 |