The Walk Off: Orioles rally to keep winning streak alive
Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look at the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about.
Look at the top of the American League East standings and you’ll find the Baltimore Orioles in first place. The Orioles have surged past the Boston Red Sox on the strength of a winning streak this week that they rallied to keep alive Thursday night in Toronto.
After Baltimore took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, the Blue Jays scored three runs in the bottom of the first and added another in the second to go up 4-1. But these Orioles are resilient, and deep and powerful which makes them tough to put away. And while Manny Machado was handed a four-game suspension for punching Yordano Ventura, he was in the lineup as he appeals the punishment.
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Two Orioles runs in the third brought them back to within one, but Josh Donaldson’s RBI triple in the fourth restored Toronto’s two run advantage. As we mentioned earlier, though, Baltimore’s bats are difficult to contain. Pedro Alvarez cut the deficit to one with a solo home run in the sixth and Chris Davis tied the game in the seventh with a solo shot of his own.
Davis wasn’t done. He put Baltimore in front with a sac fly in the ninth, and closer Zach Britton recorded the save with a clean effort in the bottom of the inning to seal a 6-5 win. They really had to work for this one, but the Orioles’ winning streak is now at five games and they’re two games up on the Red Sox and 5 1/2 games ahead of the third-place Blue Jays.
TOP PERFORMERS
D.J. LeMahieu: LeMahieu reached base four times, going 2-for-3 with two walks, and also hit one of the Colorado Rockies’ four home runs in a 11-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Rockies second baseman is now hitting .308 with a .377 OBP and four homers this season.
Adam Wainwright: Wainwright was in a groove in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 3-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds, going six innings and allowing two runs while striking out nine. His ERA is still an unrecognizable 5.21 through 13 starts, and more outings like this one will help the big right-hander bring that down.
[Elsewhere: A front-row seat to David Ortiz’s farewell tour]
Bartolo Colon: Colon was at his Bartolo-best, giving up one run over seven innings to lead the New York Mets past the Milwaukee Brewers 5-2. Milwaukee managed eight hits off the Mets starter, but as he does, he wiggled his way out of jams and didn’t allow any walks.
MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT
Even at 42 years old, Ichiro can still bring it when it counts. The Miami Marlins were tied 2-2 with the Minnesota Twins in the seventh inning when Ichiro came to the plate with runners at first and second and one out. Facing Twins starter Ervin Santa, Ichiro drove a 2-1 pitch into the gap in right center field to score the first of seven Miami runs in the inning on their way to a 10-3 win. It was classic Ichiro, and after a two-hit night he now has 2,973, putting him 27 hits away of joining the 3,000 hit club. The way he’s hitting for the Marlins, it shouldn’t take him too much longer to get there.
THE REST OF THE SCOREBOARD
Rangers 5, Astros 3: Prince Fielder and Rougned Odor homered for Texas as they took three of four from their in-state rivals.
Yankees 6, Angels 3: Brett Gardner had three hits while Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez each drove in two runs to lift New York back to .500.
White Sox 3, Nationals 1: A three-run first inning, highlighted by Melky Cabrera’s two RBI double, was all Chicago needed to snap a five-game losing streak.
Indians 5, Mariners 3: Tyler Naquin’s two-run home run off Joaquin Benoit in the eighth broke a tie and overshadowed a two homer game from Seattle’s Robinson Cano.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
