Burnes and bats shine as Orioles score dominant 6-2 win over the Blue Jays.

The Orioles offense and ace were firing on all cylinders Tuesday, as the Orioles led wire-to-wire against their division rivals.

After a chaotic Trade Deadline Day, the Orioles put together a cool, calm and collected performance on the field in a 6-2 win over the Blue Jays.

The offense continued their post-All-Star break resurgence, as they once again teed off on Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt. The O’s wasted no time pouncing on Bassitt, as they took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st. After Gunnar Henderson worked a two-out, full-count walk, up stepped the hottest hitter in Baltimore—Anthony Santander. The All-Star outfielder shot a low sinker the other way, down the left-field line, and Gunnar turned and burned around the bases to score from first.

The O’s would grow that lead in a big way two innings later in the 3rd. Ramón Urías, out of the nine spot, led off the inning with a solo HR to right field. Bassitt tried to sneak a 2-2 cutter up and away to Urías, but instead, the third baseman launched it the other way for a solo blast and a 2-0 lead.

The Orioles then loaded the bases on a trio of singles from Colton Cowser, Adley Rutshcman and Gunnar Henderson, giving Santander the opportunity to break the game open. Tony Tater couldn’t capitalize though, ground into a 1-2-3 double play to leave the O’s on with two on and two outs. What Santander couldn’t deliver, Ryan O’Hearn was happy to provide, as the O’s DH inside-outed a bloop single down the left line to score two more runs and establish a 4-0 lead.

Urías and Santander would play heroes yet again in the 4th and 5th, providing the O’s with their insurance runs. In the bottom of the 4th, Cedric Mullins hit a slow roller to second base and just beat the throw for an infield single. After Mullins stole second, Urías laced a single up the middle to score the center fielder and pick up his second RBI of the game. Then, in the bottom of the 5th, Tony added another Tater to his stat sheet. With one out in the inning, Santander launched a 3-2 cutter to the right-center gap, sneaking it over the wall for his 31st HR of the season.

All of these runs came in support of another excellent outing from ace Corbin Burnes. Coming off his longest start of the season in Miami, Burnes was locked in from the first pitch against the Jays. He opened the game by getting George Springer to pop up on the first pitch, then followed that up by punching out Dalton Varsho. After a Vlad Guerrero single, the O’s ace closed out the inning by striking out clean-up hitter Spencer Horwitz on a low slider.

Guerrero was the only hitter who consistently challenged Burnes all night as he routinely clipped the Blue Jays wings, cutter after cutter. He worked a perfect 2nd thanks to a trio of grounders and followed it up with a perfect 3rd that included a pair of strikeouts. He K’d Jays SS Leo Jiménez to start the third on a nasty sinker, as he saw Burnes consistently challenge Blue Jays hitters inside with the sinking fastball.

The only time Burnes’ dominance waned at all was during the 4th inning. With one out, he walked Guerrero on 3-2, 100mph sinker that just missed. Horwitz then bounced a single up the middle to move Vladdy to third, followed by a deep sac fly to CF off the bat of Alejandro Kirk. Burnes didn’t let the run shake his focus though, coming back to punch out Addison Barger to finish the 4th.

The All-Star righty went back into cruise control in the top of the 5th, getting Jiménez to ground out before racking up back-to-back strikeouts for another 1-2-3 inning. On a night where he only gave up three hard-hit balls, walks and hit batsmen were Burnes’ biggest hurdles on Tuesday night. In the 6th, he again walked Guerrero with one out and then hit Kirk with two outs to move Guerroer into scoring position. However, Burnes was able to get Ernie Clement to roll an easy ground ball to second to strand the runners.

After getting through six innings on only 79 pitches, it felt like Burnes had a chance to make it into the 8th inning in back-to-back starts. In the top of the 7th, Burnesy gave up a leadoff single to Barger but then immediately erased the runner with a 5-4-3 double play.

At 90 pitches, Burnes seemed to run out of gas as he gave up a weak single to No.9 hitter Steward Berroa and then walked George Springer on four pitches. It was then that Hyder decided to give Burnes the hook, pulling the ace for Cionel Pérez. The lefty reliever hung a slider to Dalton Varsho on the first pitch he threw, allowing the Jays centerfielder to drive an RBI double to right, scoring Berroa. With the inherited runner scoring, Burnes finished with a final line of 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB and 7 K. It was Burnes’ sixth straight quality start, giving him an MLB-leading 18th quality start in 2024.

Pérez would go on to finish the 7th and get the first out in the 8th, before turning it over to Yennier Cano. The setup man would get two outs to finish the inning and Hyder turned it over to Seranthony Dominguez for the 9th. The recent trade acquisition put up his third scoreless outing as an Oriole, punching out Berroa on a 98mph fastball to seal the win.

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The win secures at least a series split, as the O’s and Jays will close out the four-game set tomorrow afternoon. The win also means the Orioles end Trade Deadline Day in first place, just as they were in 2023. There’s still plenty of dust to settle as Elias and Hyde sort out the roster to make space for their new acquisitions. But at least on Tuesday night, this team already looks pretty darn good again.