LEADING OFF: O’s, Jays swing away in Toronto

The Orioles had a majors-high 253 home runs this season, with 28 in 19 games against Toronto.

ABC2 News caught up with three brothers who lived in Washington, D.C., but grew up as Orioles fans.

THIRD TIME THROUGH: The change in numbers the third time through the lineup for Marcus Stroman on the mound and the Orioles at the plate are pretty stark.

“We’re excited to be here”.

(AP Photo/Tony Avelar). San Francisco Giants’ Madison Bumgarner, left, Brandon Belt, center, and Johnny Cueto, right, listen to teammate Jake Peavy talk to the crowd on the field after clinching the National League’s second place, wild card following.

His brother, Greg McGlaflin chimed in, “These fans are very friendly to us”. “You know how they tick. Come first pitch, I’m sure, we’ll be getting a little more poked at”. Both teams finished with a 89-73 record but the Toronto Blue Jays will be having the home field advantage by winning the season series with a 10-9 margin.

As of 2 p.m., no seats were available on Ticketmaster.

Against either the Orioles or Blue Jays, the matchup would not have been a good one for the Yankees. “Whatever happens is going to happen, but as long as you give it, literally, everything that you have in your body, then everything is going to work out'”. Before you knew it, the Orioles were in a dogfight with what seemed to be half of the American League for a spot in the postseason. Its due or die for both teams, in this one game playoff. Baltimore and Toronto have never met in the postseason, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a history between the two clubs. To make it even better, he owns a sparkling 2.38 ERA over two starts at Rogers Centre on the year. Toronto dropped three of those four games and Stroman was roughed up in a couple of them as he went 1-2 with a 7.04 ERA covering 23 innings, where he surrendered 33 hits, 18 earned runs and allowed the Orioles to hit.344 during that span.

Stroman has had an up-and-down season, going just 9-10 with a 4.37 ERA in 32 starts while cracking 200 innings pitched for the first time in his career.

Chris Tillman will get the starting assignment for Baltimore while fellow right-hander Marcus Stroman will be on the hill for Toronto.

Over that time, there have been many memorable battles, including some bad blood over the past few seasons that might have continued to simmer, had Orioles reliever Darren O’Day not been lost to injury in August.

“They’re normally slugfests”, Gibbons said Monday as the Blue Jays prepared to host Baltimore in the American League wild-card game. The Orioles went 3-4 against the Rangers this year and outscored them by a run. “This isn’t the last game we’re playing at AT&T ballpark, there’s no chance”. With Brad Brach and Zach Britton at the end, I don’t see the Jays being able to get any runs off those two.

A big part of what makes the pitching staff so strong is the defense that plays behind them. “Each pitch you have has to be executed”. Bats will produce runs early and often for the Red Sox this October and they will not allow the Cubs to break the World Series streak. The victor gets an ALDS date with the Texas Rangers, while the AL East champion Boston Red Sox will take on the Cleveland Indians in the other ALDS series.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.