Blue Jays 11 Orioles 10

That seventh inning was absolutely amazing. 45 minutes between games, and I have to rewrite the recap. I’m ok with that.

Hyun Jin Ryu didn’t have it today, and even when he threw a good pitch, it was hit hard, or if something was hit soft, it missed the fielders.

He gave up two in the first, on an Anthony Santander home run. Three in the second, helped by an Austin Hays two-run homer. And two more in the third: Walk, single, strikeout, ground single (I thought we had the needed double play but missed the fielders). Then came a mound visit. Siddal thinks Charlies came out and asked Ryu if he could get the next batter. I don't particularly appreciate when wild guesses are stated as facts. But whatever the message was, it didn’t take a double-ended Ryu’s night.

A sad 2.1, 8 hits, 7 earned, 1 walk, and 4 strikeouts.

Ross Stripling came in and ended the inning. But then Ross gave up back-to-back home runs to start the fourth and three consecutive singles to allow another run. In all, 1.2 innings, 5 hits, 3 earned with a strikeout.

Nate Pearson pitched a clean fifth with two strikeouts. I was surprised to see him come out for the sixth. He hasn’t thrown more than an inning since before the hernia issue. He had a tougher inning, single, out, walk, out, an intentional walk, and a ground out, nice play by Marcus Semian.

Offensively, it was a pretty good day. We scored:

• Two in the second: Teoscar doubled, and Lourdes homered.
• One in the third: Vlad hit home run number 43.
• Two in the fourth: Jake Lamb walked, and Danny Jansen homered, his 3rd since coming off the IL.
• Two in the fifth: Bo walked, Teoscar singled, and Lourdes walked to load the bases. Jake Lamb singled home two.

We got the tying run to the plate in the seventh. Teoscar doubled down the left-field line (right down the line, hit the foul-side edge of the line, and was reviewed), and Corey Dickerson took a walk on a very good at-bat. Lourdes followed with a ball off the right-field wall, five feet to the right of where it would have been a home run. Lourdes must have thought it was a home run because he only got to first on the play. That could have cost us. Lamb hit a sac fly, Dyson (running for Lourdes, would have been on third, had Lourdes run out the double he should have had.

But it didn’t matter because:

George Springer homered!!!! Jays take the lead!!!

Hard to believe, Springer has looked gimpy and hasn’t had many good swings. Tough to hit the ball hard when your knees are hurting.

Coming in for the bottom of the seventh, Jordan Romano got DJ Stewart to pop out (after getting to 3-1). Austin Hays hit a fly ball to the wall in center field (great catch Jarrod Dyson). I thought it was out. A tough bounce ground ball error on Vlad gave us a moment of worry, but Trey Mancini hit an easy ground ball to Semien to end things.

Save 17 for Jordan. Win 1 for Nate.

We had 13 hits. Teoscar 3. George, Lourdes, and Lamb 2.

The only Jay without a hit was Dickerson, and he had an essential walk in the seventh.

Jays of the Day: Springer (.675 WPA), Lourdes (.335, though I want to dock him for not running out that ball in the ninth), Romano (.106), and Teoscar (.101).

Suckage: Ryu (-.586 WPA). And I’m giving one to Stripling for the 2 home run, 3 run inning.

This is a thing of beauty:

We had 710 comments in the GameThread. I led us to an improbable victory.