TORONTO -- The Orioles are running out of opportunities to salvage their season.
And they didn’t do themselves any favors on Saturday afternoon.
The O’s squandered the chance to secure a series victory over the Blue Jays by dropping the second game of a three-game set, 7-3, at Rogers Centre.
While these aren’t technically must-win games, it’s certainly starting to feel that way for Baltimore (72-77). With just 13 games left to play in the regular season and coming into Saturday’s action three back of Cleveland (75-73) for the final American League Wild Card spot, there isn’t a lot of room for error.
The game started out well, as the Orioles loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the first before Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s flyout to the warning track in right field ended the inning.
But it went downhill quickly from there.
Toronto plated two runs in the bottom half of the first, starter Spencer Miles followed by striking out the side in the second and the Blue Jays would hold the lead the rest of the way.
Orioles starter Kyle Bradish, who turned 30 on Saturday, didn’t have much to celebrate as he lasted only three innings and surrendered five runs on eight hits and two walks to go with a pair of strikeouts.
The O’s offense showed some life late, when first baseman Pete Alonso hit a two-run home run, his 35th of the season and 299th of his career, off the foul pole in left in the seventh inning. It wasn’t enough to spark a comeback, as the Blue Jays added one of their own in the bottom half of the inning to round out the scoring.