Sanchez leads Blue Jays past Orioles 5-3

The fading Orioles are four games behind the first-place Blue Jays and are tied with Detroit for the second wild card spot. He allowed only three hits and no more runs in his last five innings, but the early runs proved too much.

“He was like his old self”, said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “We’re not sitting where we’re at right now without him, that’s for sure”. “But we’ve just got to learn from it, and get a good off day tomorrow and come back stronger than we were”.

With two wins in the first three games of this critical nine-game road trip that moves to Tampa Bay now for the weekend, then on to Yankee Stadium in NY next Monday, the Jays are off to a decent start. After losing the opener 5-1, the Orioles will look to gain more ground in the series finale Wednesday.

Jonathan Schoop started the game-winning rally with a two-out walk off Jason Grilli (4-2). “My season is not done and I knew that so it was go down there, get work in, understand what I’m trying to accomplish and come back in a big game”. “All these games are really important for us and we just have to figure out a way to get it done”. He said that they’ve got to put the dramatic Tuesday victory away.

Dan Otero pitched 2-2/3 hitless and scoreless innings, while Andrew Miller got the last five outs of the game to pick up his 12th save.

Blue Jays left-hander J.A. Happ fell short of tying Boston’s Rick Porcello for the major league lead with 18 wins.

In his third start since returning from a stint on the disabled list with a lat strain, Teheran (4-9) allowed a two-run homer by Oswaldo Arcia, but just five other hits while lowering his ERA slightly to 3.12. “When they make mistakes, we make them pay”. “They’re very good at home and we try to battle them, it doesn’t matter where. I gave us what I had tonight, which wasn’t a ton but it was enough to keep us in the ballgame”. Manny Machado then unloaded a bomb, his 32nd homer of the season and 100th of his career, to left-centre and suddenly the Orioles had a two-run lead, 3-1.

Scherzer (15-7) allowed two runs and three hits. Later in the inning, Martin added his two-out, two-run shot to right that gave the Jays the early three-run lead.

Gallardo (4-7), who was won just one of 12, settled down and retired the last 10 batters he faced.

Cleveland trailed 4-1 in the second inning as starter Josh Tomlin only recorded five outs before being removed from the game.

After Bautista drilled Yovani Gallardo’s first pitch over the wall in center field, Martin followed with a two-run shot.

“We finally found some barrels on the balls and we’re able to drive in some runs in key situations”, Machado said. “[First inning struggles] happen with a lot of pitchers until you find [a rhythm]”.

The Cubs won for the sixth time in eight games and extended the lead in the National League Central to 14 1/2 games over the second-place St. Louis Cardinals.

ASTROS 3, ATHLETICS 1: Collin McHugh threw six scoreless innings for Houston, and Colby Rasmus and Evan Gattis homered.

“He pitched well I thought for the most part”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. He spent the past 10 days in the minors to limit his innings. Bundy has struggled in three appearances against NY this season, going 0-1 with 9.39 ERA over three appearances (eight runs in 7 2/3 innings). That appeared unlikely when the Blue Jays arrived to face three veteran pitchers who each took the mound with an ERA higher than 5.50.

Christian Yelich hit a two-run homer for the Marlins, who have dropped four straight and six of eight overall.