Donaldson homers again, Blue Jays beat Orioles 5-1

Baltimore starter Wade Miley (8-11) allowed three runs on five hits in seven innings, his longest effort since coming to the team in July.

Even if Miley had left after six innings and 107 pitches, like everyone in attendance expected, it would have been his best outing.

The lead was short lived as Josh Donaldson, the first Blue Jay to reach base after Wade Miley retired the first 10, homered. The Blue Jays extended their winning streak to four with a 5-1 win Monday night to move four games ahead of Baltimore atop the American League East.Happ, who has already established a career high in victories, can join Boston’s Rick Porcello as the only 18-game winners in the majors.

For Donaldson, his fourth-inning fly – which hung lazily above the field until it was in the seats – was his 34th homer of the season and sixth in his last five games as the reigning MVP aims to defend his crown with a torrid, late-summer surge.

Navarro, who spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons in Toronto, gives the Blue Jays depth at catcher and the ability to give Russell Martin a rest.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia belted the go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning as the Detroit Tigers toppled the Chicago White Sox 4-3 at Comerica Park to move within a game of the second AL wild card spot. Even though he was far from ideal – he allowed home runs to Jose Bautista and blue-hot Josh Donaldson – he did enough to win on a normal night.

Hardy said the Orioles realize the position they’re in but will keep on fighting. This was the first time I really thought that the Blue Jays were legitimate contenders, that they could go all the way. “Any time you get that first game of the series, you always feel that much better”. “We just didn’t do much against Estrada”, Showalter said. I mean, [Miley] was pitching good, pitching really fast. St. Louis tied it in the eighth on a two-run homer by Randal Grichuk off Corey Knebel. Joaquin Benoit then closed things out with a ideal ninth. It’s beginning to feel like, no matter what the inning and no matter what the score, the Blue Jays are there to win games. “We’ve got to win the next two”. Orioles CF Adam Jones (hamstring) was out of the starting lineup for the third straight game.3. Blue-clad fans behind the Toronto dugout make their presence known among the announced crowd of 15,532, cheering and waving Canadian flags proudly as fans in half-filled sections of orange quietly shuffled to the exits.

Most importantly, though, the Blue Jays got a vintage performance from a pitcher they’ll need down the stretch. “We’re going to go out there every single night trying to win, and that’s what we’ve got to do”.