The Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Baltimore Orioles in three games a year ago.
Yes, we most likely recall how the Orioles, who won the AL East, had the Jays beaten last season. It took until August 22 for Toronto to defeat their division opponents for the third time. They were outscored 75-40 and finished a pitiful 3-11, losing every series to them.
Even though it is just June 6, the Blue Jays have already defeated the Orioles three times this season. At Rogers Centre on Thursday afternoon, the Blue Jays defeated the Orioles 6-5 by weathering two late-inning explosions. After losing the first two games of the series by a combined score of 17-3, the Blue Jays’ victory earned them a split of the series, which seems like a significant accomplishment.
“I’m really proud of the guys after that second game and they come back and they walked it off yesterday and then just a really good game today,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “That’s a big win. It’s June and it’s a split, but going by the first two games of the series against a really, really good team to come back and get two is really big.”
The Blue Jays and Orioles are currently 3-3 against one another this season after splitting their first two series of the year. (But the Orioles had beaten them, 29–17.) Without a doubt, this season’s Blue Jays underachieved and disappointed. They are still 9 1/2 games behind Baltimore and 3 1/2 games behind a wild card place. However, thus far this season, they have been far more competitive against the Orioles in terms of head-to-head and game-to-game play.
“They’ve been some close games, minus the first couple here. We’re playing them really well,” Schneider said. “We’re pitching really well for the most part, again minus the first two (this week) and they’re going to score, evident in the last inning there. They can put up runs in a hurry. I like the way we added on runs today. I like the pitching performance from our starters and it was a hard-fought series.”
The game’s pivotal moment occurred in the third inning when Orioles rookie starter Cade Povich, making his Major League Baseball debut, made mistakes that the Blue Jays took advantage of. Before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. batted in the inning, Povich had walked Danny Jansen and Ernie Clement. Povich left a cutter up, and Guerrero launched it over the right-field wall 356 feet for a three-run home run in a 1-0 count.
Vladdy Hacks #PLAKATA pic.twitter.com/PZPDtiJZ0b
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) June 6, 2024
Guerrero’s sixth home run of the season thrilled the 39,215 spectators, the most of whom were excited schoolchildren on a school day. Guerrero saw the homer as a sign of hope. Over his last 35 games, he is hitting.363, but he has not been hitting with greater power. But Schneider expressed confidence that the balls will start to leave the yard more frequently if Guerrero keeps getting at-bats as he has been doing for the past month.
“I want him to be a hitter first and have the quality of the at-bats that he’s having,” the manager said. “The home runs are going to come because he hits the ball so hard.”
In the fourth inning, Daulton Varsho and Isiah Kiner-Falefa scored another run for the Blue Jays thanks to back-to-back weak hits to right field that fell short of Orioles defenders. With a two-run single by Clement in the sixth inning, the Blue Jays increased their advantage to 6-1.
On the pitch, Yusei Kikuchi produced a solid start on Wednesday to match José Berríos’. With six strikeouts and a walk in six innings, the left-hander for the Blue Jays limited the Orioles to one run on four hits. Adley Rutschman’s single home run in the fifth inning was the only significant blow the Orioles could muster against Kikuchi. Part of the four runs the Orioles scored in the eighth and ninth innings via home runs that almost tied the game was added by the catcher for the Orioles against Zach Pop in the eighth inning.
Following two appearances in which he gave up a total of 10 earned runs in 8 1/3 innings, Kikuchi’s start was a positive step in the right direction. Kikuchi stated after his previous start that he felt his pitch mix had been too predictable and that is why he made “some tweaks” for this start. Schneider was happy with his starter’s performance, especially the way he located his breaking balls and landed his powerful fastball.
“When you’re familiar with an opponent, you can’t be too predictable and I thought he was keeping them back and forth and got a lot of swing and miss today,” the manager said.
The Blue Jays’ record now stands at 30-32 after the victory. The next game they play is against the Oakland A’s, and if they can win the first two games of that series, they will have an opportunity to return to.500 for the first time since April 29.
There are still 100 games in Toronto’s season. The Blue Jays have not played like a contender team thus far. In order to secure their spot in the playoffs, they will need to outperform their past performance and maintain a minimum of 90 wins while outpacing five other teams in the wild-card battle. The Blue Jays are aware that they have little room for error in this difficult undertaking.
“We’re not in a position where we want to be, but we’ve been grinding,” Kikuchi said through his interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “Everyone’s working really hard and we haven’t given up. We got 100 games left or so. That’s still a lot of season, so hopefully, we could ride this momentum and keep winning moving forward.”
At the very least, the Blue Jays’ ability to bounce back against Baltimore this week demonstrated their tenacious approach to the game. If they want to salvage their season, they will have to continue doing it.
“We got to win more games,” Guerrero said. “This is what we’re here for, to win games, and we just need to win more games.”
(Photo of Kikuchi: Vaughn Ridley / Getty Images)
