Two teams that might be trending in the right direction will meet Thursday night when the Toronto Blue Jays visit the Baltimore Orioles to open a four-game series.
The Blue Jays just completed a 4-2 homestand, capped by a 2-1 victory against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday afternoon. Toronto needed four relievers to get through the final four innings.
The Blue Jays, who have won two in a row and six of their past eight games, are in a taxing portion of their schedule. They haven’t had a day off since May 14.
Toronto would like to get rookie third baseman Kazuma Okamoto going again at the plate. The right-handed hitter socked a solo home run to right-center on Wednesday, but he is 6-for-48 (.125) with three RBIs in his past 14 games.
“In center and right-center, he’s got pretty elite power,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “That was just a really good approach.”
The Orioles are riding a high after sweeping three games from the visiting Tampa Bay Rays, who hold the American League’s best record.
“We know the team that we have and the caliber of players that we have on this team and knew it was only a matter of time to get going a little bit,” Baltimore shortstop Gunnar Henderson said. “Hope we can keep it going.”
The Orioles’ 11-2 triumph on Wednesday featured a five-run first inning. Henderson homered twice in the game, and Blaze Alexander homered, doubled and singled while driving in a career-high six runs.
“A bunch of guys from different teams and stuff, and we’re finally starting to come together,” Alexander said. “I know fans don’t want to hear that, but patience, man, patience.”
Left-hander Patrick Corbin (2-1, 3.86 ERA) gets the call for the Blue Jays to open the series. He worked a season-high six innings on Saturday, giving up one run while striking out a season-best seven in a victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That was his first outing without a walk this season.
Corbin is 1-6 with a 5.46 ERA in 11 all-time games (10 starts) against Baltimore.
The Orioles are lined up to use right-hander Chris Bassitt (4-3, 5.51) after his start was pushed back a day. Bassitt pitched the past three seasons for the Blue Jays. He has faced Toronto three times in his career, going 0-1 with a 4.26 ERA in 19 innings.
The rotation might be rounding into form for the Orioles, who got 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball from Trey Gibson after he was called up to start on Wednesday. Gibson emerged with his first major league win.
“I think they’re getting into a groove,” manager Craig Albernaz said of his starting pitchers. “I think they’re in a good cadence of their work and their process, as far as in between starts, making little tweaks that they need to, whether that be delivery or pitch usage.”
If there was something that went awry for the Orioles on Wednesday it was reliever Yennier Cano leaving the game due to right hamstring discomfort.
“It tightened up on him on a foul ball by (Tampa Bay’s Richie) Palacios and he kind of did a quick move to go get it and he said he felt it tighten up on him,” Albernaz said.
The Blue Jays added right-handed reliever Connor Seabold, who had been designated for assignment, in a trade with the Tigers on Wednesday. Toronto sent minor league left-hander Juanmi Vasquez to Detroit.
Veteran right-hander Austin Voth was promoted to the Blue Jays from Triple-A Buffalo, and rookie right-hander Tanner Andrews was optioned to Buffalo.
–Field Level Media
