Blue Jays rout Orioles 9-1 to take AL East lead

Sanchez was the latest Jays starter to hurl a quality start against the Orioles, after righty Marco Estrada and lefty J.A. Happ did so during the first two games of the series.

INDIANS 8, ATHLETICS 0: Corey Kluber (10-8) limited Oakland to five hits in seven innings, Mike Napoli hit a two-run homer and Cleveland completed a three-game sweep.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles are back in first place in the American League East division and the win column. “We’ll see how long it takes, hopefully not too long”.

The Blue Jays reached that goal during today’s 9-1 win over the Orioles. The Orioles won 6-2 in 12 innings.

Morales was then nailed with a balk with Matt Wieters up, advancing Alvarez to second. Alvarez scored when Schoop singled to left with one out. J.J. Hardy then walked and Jesse Chavez replaced Morales.

Toronto Blue Jays Troy Tulowitzki grimaces after being hit by a pitch in the sixth inning against the Baltimore Orioles in a 6-2 loss.

Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg tries to become the first pitcher in the majors with 15 wins this season when he starts at Arizona. Gibbons said Donaldson had tightness in his hamstring.

Tulowitzki said he could still play defense but could not hold a bat after being hit. “If you’re going to have a winning team that’s kind of the one thing you want to have is pitching, and we have that so we’re feeling pretty good about it”.

He said that he can throw but has a problem gripping the bat.

“I just wasn’t able to get ahead of guys like I was doing early in the game”, Gallardo said.

On the positive side, O’s ace Chris Tillman rebounded from a rough outing against the Colorado Rockies July 26 – six runs in five innings – with a solid start in Toronto.

Anthony Rendon hit a two-run homer in the third for the Nationals, who couldn’t protect an early 3-0 lead hours after acquiring All-Star closer Mark Melancon from Pittsburgh to replace the struggling Jonathan Papelbon.

“We’re starting to play some good baseball, and that’s really what it comes down to, playing good baseball at the right time”, said Pillar. “That’s a good ballclub”. “With that being said, any time you issue a lead off walk they come back to haunt you”. (The bullpen) has been good all year. “But they could probably answer that question better than I can”.

Both managers burned through their bullpen in the extra-inning affair – the Orioles used five relievers and the Jays six - creating speculation that Toronto will make a move to bring a fresh reliever prior to the start of their seven-game road trip that begins with four games in Houston before moving on to Kansas City on Friday. The right-hander struck out three.

“He’s swinging at some balls out of the strike zone, which is a little bit not like him”, manager Don Mattingly said. We’re a good team.

The only bench player with options is Josh Thole and the Blue Jays obviously can’t go without a backup catcher. Martin had hit a double to the gap between right and centre with one out.

Toronto opened the scoring in the second when Russell Martin doubled and scored on Devon Travis’ groundout. The 24-year-old leads the American League with a 2.71 earned-run average. Mauricio Cabrera (2-0), the fourth of six Atlanta pitchers, pitched a one-hit seventh, and Jim Johnson pitched a hitless ninth for his sixth save.