The Toronto Blue Jays continue to use the home run to help their cause this year. Three different Blue Jays all went deep on Friday night, including a clutch walk-off two-run home run by Randal Grichuk as the Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4, in 10 innings.
It looked bleak for the Blue Jays, who were down to their final out in the bottom of the 10th inning, but Grichuk came through with his ninth home run of the season to center field off of Orioles pitcher Cole Sulser to win the game at Sahlen Field.
The other two home runs for Toronto came on back-to-back pitches in the fourth inning while the game was still scoreless.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. broke through with an opposite field home run to right field to give Toronto the first run of the night off of Baltimore starter John Means. The home run extended his hitting streak to a career-best 10-games. During the hitting streak, Guerrero Jr. has scored nine runs, four doubles, a triple, two home runs and eight RBI.
After Guerrero Jr.’s homer opening the scoring, the next batter, Teoscar Hernandez, on the very next pitch, sent a ball over the left field wall to give Toronto a 2-0 lead.
Hernandez has been hitting for power all season. He now has 12 home runs, tied with Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox for the most in the American League. Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres has the overall Major League lead with 13 home runs.
In the sixth, Baltimore was threatening, as they loaded the bases on Toronto starter Hyun Jin Ryu. With two outs, Ryu got the ground ball he wanted to get out of the inning, but third baseman Travis Shaw threw wildly to first base, allowing two Orioles to score to tie the game at 2-2.
Toronto immediately responded in the bottom half of the inning with Guerrero Jr. leading off the inning with a double. Later in the bottom frame with Guerrero Jr. now at third, Orioles pitcher Tanner Scott threw a wild pitch allowing Guerrero Jr. to score to regain the lead at 3-2 after six innings.
In the eighth, Baltimore tied things up on two-out solo home run from Renato Núñez to left field that made it a 3-3 game.
In the top half of the 10th, the Orioles had Cedric Mullins sacrifice bunt Rio Ruiz to third. Then, Hanser Alberto blooped a single into shallow center field, which scored Ruiz to give the Orioles their first lead of the night at 4-3. That was eventually erased by the Grichuk walk-off home run for Toronto in the bottom half of the inning.
The two teams will meet again Saturday night at Sahlen Field at 6:37 p.m. in Game 2 of a four-game series.
NOTES:
- It was Jackie Robinson Day across all of Major League Baseball on Friday Night. All the players wore No. 42 on their jerseys. There was a pregame ceremony to honor Robinson, which seemed to have an even bigger meaning with the recent civil unrest across the country.
- Toronto made some roster moves on Friday, acquiring right-handed pitcher Taijuan Walker from the Seattle Mariners for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Walker is 28-years-old, is 2-2, with a 4.00 ERA. Manager Charlie Montoyo expects Walker to play on Saturday. The team also added first baseman Daniel Vogelbach to the active roster. To make room, infielder Brandon Drury and pitcher Sean Reid-Foley have been optioned to the Alternate Training Site.
- Blue Jays pitcher Jordan Romano was removed from the game in the eighth inning with an injury to his right middle finger.
- Toronto catcher Danny Jansen had a great game defensively. Jansen threw out three runners attempting to steal second base. He threw out two of them in the ninth inning.
- The postponed game between the Jays and the Boston Red Sox from Thursday Night has now been officially rescheduled as a part of a doubleheader in Boston at Fenway Park on Friday, Sept. 4. Game 1 will start at 4:10 p.m. and Game 2 will start 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 1. In Game 2, the Blue Jays will be the home team.