J.A. Happ was forced to leave yesterday's game early with a strained elbow, building upon the already-unhealthy Blue Jay core early in the season with perhaps the most serious injury to date. Seth Smith tacked on an insurance run with a solo shot in the ninth inning to help the American League East division leaders improve to 7-2.
Toronto brought the winning run to the plate in the ninth before closer Zach Britton struck out Steve Pearce to lock down his fifth save.
It's another discouraging blow for the Blue Jays (2-10), whose terrible April represents the worst start in franchise history.
Kim, who bats left-handed, had been benched in the four previous games, as the Orioles faced three left-handed starters and a right-handed knuckleballer in Boston Red Sox's Steven Wright. He doubled, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
Justin Smoak drove in Morales with a single and Darwin Barney - filling in for injured third baseman Josh Donaldson - brought home Tulowitzki with a grounder booted by third baseman Manny Machado. In the last two years, the Blue Jays have ranked 1st and 9th in runs scored, respectively, while hammering 453 home runs over that period.
Baltimore reclaimed the lead by belting a pair of homers in the next frame.
That sucked the air out of the crowd of 40,743, before Morales sent them home happy with his second homer of the year. "It was tough, I had runners on nearly every inning - they're a good lineup over there - but we pulled it off". It was his third homer of the season.
Easter: Day to embark upon journey of self-discovery
Although it is called Good Friday, many people are saddened on this day because it is the day Jesus died for all of us. THOUSANDS of Christians around the country began their Easter long weekend by marking Good Friday yesterday.
Roberto Osuna (1-0) had allowed Jonathan Schoop's sacrifice fly in the top half. A two-out Ryan Goins double then brought Pillar up with two runners on. For the next two games, he was inserted in the lineup as designated hitter, doing his job until Thursday's painful end.
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetDSI, the Orioles are -108 on the money line to beat the Blue Jays, who have odds of -102 to win today's game. And the last time the club lost more than five in a row in the month of April was 2008.
Sanchez's effort was pedestrian by his lofty standards.
Starters Francisco Liriano (0-1) and Kevin Gausman (1-0) both had fine outings, with Toronto's Liriano bouncing back from a disastrous opening start in Tampa that left his earned-run average at 135.00. Because he doesn't throw many between starts, his first few curveballs in any given game feel normal.
Blue Jays right-hander Aaron Sanchez is headed to the disabled list, retroactive to Saturday, with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, according to the team.
Scott collapsed after being hit in the mask by a foul tip off the bat of Baltimore's Mark Trumbo. He did not appear to lose consciousness. Scott briefly tried to get up, wobbled and had to be taken from the stadium by stretcher. Sequencing of hits matters a lot, and a couple of lucky hits at the right time - you are allowed to call them clutch hits - could have easily meant that Toronto would have been 3-6 or 4-5, even with the same poor offensive showing. He had a 3.75 ERA in 36 games for Chicago last season.
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