Orioles hot streak in Toronto ends with 3-2 walkoff loss

The Orioles bats went quiet after the 2nd inning and Craig Kimbrel only got one out in the 9th in an all-around disappointing affair.

The last time the Orioles took on José Berríos and the Blue Jays, they lost 3-2 in 10 innings. Wednesday they ended the game an inning early, as the O’s lost 3-2 on a walkoff single in the bottom of the 9th.

Early on it looked like we might get another big offensive output from the O’s. Anthony Santander led off the top of the 2nd by absolutely launching a low sweeper into RF for a solo HR. The homer had an EV of 106mph and was Tony Taters’ furthest-hit ball of the year at 436 feet.

Cedric Mullins continued the rally when he walked and stole second to move into scoring position. Ramón Urías then laced a double the other way to drive home the speedy CF and give the O’s a 2-0 advantage. Gunnar Henderson would ground out on a hard-hit ball to short to strand Urías, but they seemed to be flying high with an early 2-0 lead.

Things then proceeded to crash back to earth rather quickly. Baltimore gave that lead right back when Toronto scored two of their own in the bottom of the 2nd. Then the O’s bats went largely silent. In the 3rd and 4th innings, Orioles hitters failed to get the ball out of the infield, with their only base runner coming on a Ryan O’Hearn infield single to the right side.

Baltimore’s only real scoring threat after the 2nd came in the 6th. O’Hearn slashed a one-out single to left field to give the O’s a base runner and then moved to second on a walk by Santander. Westburg drove the first pitch he saw deep into the right field corner, but George Springer glided over for the catch—allowing O’Hearn to tag and move to third. With two out and a man on third, Kyle Stowers had the chance to be the hero… but instead hit a 100mph grounder to shortstop on the first pitch he saw, ending the inning.

The Orioles failed to get a hit in the 7th, 8th or 9th, setting things up for a most disappointing outing for Craig Kimbrel. The nine-time All-Star closer started the bottom of the 9th by allowing an opposite-field single to Justin Turner. Kimbrel and Ryan Mountcastle then made things worse when they failed to connect on a pickoff attempt, allowing pinch-runner Cavan Biggio to move to second. From there, Kimbrel never really stood a chance; Alejandro Kirk lofted a fly out to deep right to move Biggio and Isiah Kiner-Falefa then launched a single over Stowers head in right for the walk-off winner.

The 9th inning meltdown obscured an otherwise extremely effective day for the Orioles pitching After domination by Grayson Rodriguez and Corbin Burnes in the first two games of the series, the O’s got a much more understated effort from Albert Suárez. The 34-year-old righty was his normally effective, strike-zone-pounding self, but his day was far from blemishless. He allowed a one-out double to Dalton Varsho in the 1st but punched out Vladdy Guerrero and got Bo Bichette to lineout to Mountcastle to strand the runner.

After the Orioles took their 2-0 lead in the top of the 2nd, Suárez gave those runs back in the bottom of the inning. He couldn’t locate his fastball to Springer and walked him on five pitches. Turner then ripped an inside fastball past Urías at third and down the left field line to give the Blue Jays two runners in scoring position. Both of the runners would come home to score—Springer on a hard-hit sac fly by Kirk and Turner on a slow-bouncing single up the middle that eluded Gunnar.

That 2nd inning was the only real spot on Suárez’ record Wednesday, as he quickly settled back into a groove. The righty breezed through the third inning on only four pitches and worked around one-out singles in the 4th and 5th to put up two more scoreless innings. After throwing 84 pitches, and with the game tied 2-2, Brandon Hyde decided to turn to the pen in the 6th. Suárez finished with a final line of 5 IP, 5 Hs, 2 ERs, 1 BB and 4 Ks. It was only his second appearance this season where he allowed more than one run as Suárez continued to embody dependability for Baltimore.

Jacob Webb, Danny Coulombe and Yennier Cano pitched the 6th, 7th and 8th and all three were on top form Wednesday. Webb did give up a pair of hits, but worked around them and punched out IKF on a nasty changuep to leave the runners stranded. Coulombe continued to be the best lefty in the O’s pen, seemingly effortlessly moving down the 9, 1 and 2 hitters to work a scoreless 7th. Cano was then the best of the bunch, dominating Toronto hitters in the 8th inning and even getting a rare strikeout via slider against Bichette.

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The loss means they’ll have to pull out a win in Game 4 to take the series win North of the Border. It also drops their record to 39-21, leaving them 3.5 games back of the Yankees in first (two in the loss column). Perhaps the silver lining of that record is that 39-21 was the O’s 60-game record in 1966, 1969 and 1970—all years they made it to the World Series, taking home the trophy in ‘66 and ‘70. Outside of that, it’s just a disappointing loss that should be forgotten about and moved on from as quickly as possible.