Brandon Belt homered in the 10th inning on Mike Baumann’s first pitch and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 on Tuesday night.
The loss ended the Orioles’ three-game winning streak, which saw their lead atop the American East Division shrink to two games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays.
With Bo Bichette set up on second base as an auto-runner, in the top of the 10th inning, Belt hit an arrow into the right field bleachers for his 14th long ball of the campaign. The Blue Jays have won five of their last seven outings and hit seven homers in their last two games.
The Torontonians added a run in the 10th inning on a bad pitch from Baumann (9-1), the first reliever in Orioles history to win his first nine decisions.
Tim Mayza (3-1) was perfect in the ninth inning for the visitors and Jordan Romano had the last three outs of the game to record his 31st save of 34 attempts.
Blue Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi allowed three runs and seven hits in four and two-thirds innings of work. It was the first time in seven starts since July 6 that the southpaw allowed more than two earned runs.
The Orioles trailed 3-1 in the fifth inning before ousting Kikuchi from the matchup and tying the game at the expense of reliever Yimi Garcia. Jorge Mateo came on to score after a poor throw from Blue Jays receiver Danny Jansen on a double steal. Garcia later conceded a one-run double to rookie Jordan Westburg.
Austin Hays hit a one-run double in the first inning for the Orioles, but the Blue Jays took the lead in the second when rookie starter Grayson Rodriguez gave Daulton Varsho a two-run long ball. Kevin Kiermaier extended the Toronto lead with a one-run double in the fourth.
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