Kyle Bradish didn’t allow an earned run in seven innings and Colton Cowser smashed a three-run home run as the Baltimore Orioles defeated the visiting Toronto Blue Jays 9-5 on Sunday afternoon to salvage a split of a four-game series.
Cowser finished with four RBIs. He homered for the third time in an eight-day span, helping the Orioles complete a 7-3 homestand.
Bradish (3-6) was unscathed until the Blue Jays scored in the seventh inning on second baseman Jackson Holliday’s throwing error. Bradish allowed four hits and three walks with four strikeouts.
Pete Alonso, Gunnar Henderson, Blaze Alexander, Samuel Basallo and Cowser all recorded two hits to account for Baltimore’s 10 safeties. Alonso and Cowser each scored two runs.
Yohendrick Pinango smacked a three-run homer and Nathan Lukes, Ernie Clement and Pinango all had two of Toronto’s eight hits. The Blue Jays lost for only the fourth time in their last 12 games.
Toronto’s Spencer Miles (2-1), who was in a starting role for the second time this season, gave up six runs in three innings. Three more runs were charged to reliever Hayden Juenger.
Trailing 9-1, Clement doubled in a run with two outs in the eighth off Tyler Wells one batter before Pinango’s third blast of the season. Rico Garcia worked a perfect ninth for the Orioles.
Pinango entered the game only after starting right fielder Jesus Sanchez left in the sixth inning with a wrist contusion, suffered when a young fan tossed a ball his way that he wasn’t expecting.
Cowser knocked in the game’s first run on a second-inning groundout. Alonso’s single and Basallo’s double drove in runs in the third inning before Cowser’s two-out home run capped that five-run frame.
Baltimore scored three more runs in the sixth inning, keyed by Henderson’s RBI double and Adley Rutschman’s sacrifice fly.
After getting off to a rocky start to the season, Bradish has allowed only three earned runs (1.11 ERA) over his last 24 1/3 innings (four starts) and lowered his ERA for the season to 3.44.
The Orioles won for the second day in a row, though they didn’t need a five-run, ninth-inning rally like they produced Saturday. Sunday’s result marked the only time in the series the final margin was more than one run.
–Field Level Media
