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Recap: Blue Jays 12, Orioles 6
Blue Jays 12, Orioles 6: Edwin Encarnacion hit his fifth career grand slam as host Toronto outslugged Baltimore, spoiling Kevin Gausman’s major-league debut.
Encarnacion turned on a Pedro Strop fastball in the sixth inning and lined it off the left-field foul pole as the Blue Jays improved to 3-1 on their nine-game homestand. J.P. Arencibia added a two-run shot and finished with four RBIs in support of Brandon Morrow (2-3), who prevailed despite allowing six runs on 10 hits over seven-plus innings.
Gausman (0-1), the fourth overall pick in the 2012 draft, was tagged for four runs on seven hits with a pair of walks and five strikeouts. Chris Davis, Nick Markakis and Adam Jones went deep in defeat for Baltimore, which has dropped seven of nine.
The Orioles struck for a pair of runs in the third, as Manny Machado laced a two-run double down the left-field line. Davis extended the lead in the fourth with a leadoff blast that deflected off the right-field foul pole for his 15th homer, tops in the majors.
Back-to-back doubles by Adam Lind and Arencibia put Toronto on the board in the bottom half of the inning, and Emilio Bonifacio made it a one-run game with a sacrifice fly. Arencibia vaulted the Blue Jays in front with a shot that barely cleared the left-field wall in the fifth, Encarnacion put the game away after Troy Patton and Strop combined to load the bases on three consecutive two-out walks and Toronto added four runs in a bat-around eighth.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Machado, who doubled three times and leads the majors with 21, is on pace to become the second player in history to record 50 or more doubles in his age-20/21 season. Alex Rodriguez hit 54 doubles with the Seattle Mariners in 1996, his first full season in the majors. … Orioles LF Nate McLouth tumbled headlong into the first row of stands to catch a Colby Rasmus fly ball leading off the sixth. The third-base umpire ruled that McLouth held on to the ball – a decision that prompted one fan in the second deck to hurl a beverage at McLouth, narrowly missing him. … Gausman threw 58 of his 89 pitches for strikes while regularly hitting 99 mph on the radar gun.
