The AL East matchup saw the Orioles go across the border and take a 6-5 victory over the Blue Jays.
Ryan Mountcastle and Austin Hays both hit homers for the O’s. Austin Hays has been the biggest source of offense for the Orioles all year, and that continued on Tuesday. Hays had four hard hit balls in his five at bats and drove himself in on a solo homer in the 5th inning. Hays is now hitting .291 with a .815 OPS.
The Blue Jays offense was led by third baseman Matt Chapman who was 2-4 with a HR, 2 RBI, and 2 hard hit balls. The Blue Jays had an xBA of .240 and collected 4 extra base hits as a team in the loss.
The pitching for the Blue Jays was rough throughout the first 5.1 innings. Yusei Kikuchi struggled with his command in his 4 innings pitched, allowing 4 walks, 5 hits, and 4 earned runs. Kikuchi did collect 10 swings and misses, 6 of which came on his slider, even though it has been his worst pitch all year. His slider has an 8 run value, .329 BAA, and a 50% hard hit rate. Trevor Richards followed up Kikuchi’s 4 innings with 1.1 innings of his own in which he allowed 2 earned runs, 2 hits, a walk, and 2 hard hit balls. The last 3.2 innings were much better for the Blue Jays pitching staff. Trent Thornton and Tim Mayza both had scoreless appearances.
Orioles starter Jordan Lyles allowed 4 earned runs and 5 hits in his 5.1 innings of work, but he did collect 14 swings and misses, half of which came on his slider. Similar to Kikuchi, Lyles slider has arguably been his worst pitch this season. It has a .299 BAA and a 6 run value. The bullpen was once again fantastic for Baltimore. Felix Bautista has been outstanding for the Orioles, he struck out 2 hitters in his 0.2 innings of work. He gathered 7 whiffs, 5 of which came on his fastball which has a run value of -5. The other 2 came on Bautista’s splitter which has been his best pitch all year, it has a .087 BAA, 50% whiff percentage, and a 47.8 K%. Dillon Tate struck out 2 in his scoreless inning of work, Jorge Lopez also collected a 5 out save and lowered his ERA on the season to 0.88.