This September edition of baseball was the first of 10 high-scoring, meaningful games between these two clubs over the next 30 days as they jockey for the American League wild-card spot — an important matchup given the cards once the pitches started flying. . Courageous pitching performances; strong home runs; a controversial call; stingy gatherings; late fees; big holidays; a loud, engaged crowd that was about 80 percent orange and 20 percent blue. and a 7-3 Blue Jays win in the first half of a scheduled traditional doubleheader. Whether the rain forecast in the area sabotages Monday’s second game remains to be seen. But the Blue Jays will hope it doesn’t so they can carry over the positive momentum of not only the win, but the three-run ninth rally that helped fuel it. The Blue Jays took those hits on the Orioles’ DL Hall — called up days ago to help push the club’s playoff push — which quickly turned the box score into one that didn’t reflect the tightly contested, one-run game they had the clubs playing when the inning began. It was a stress-releasing offensive outburst more than three hours after Kevin Gausman put it all on the line for the Blue Jays in his latest exciting and strong start. Gausman entered the seventh, allowing a pair of runs on seven hits while striking out six. He surrendered one of those runs early, laying down a two-out, full-count split to Anthony Santander, who took it 414 feet to Eutaw Street for just the right-hander’s 10th homer all year. But Gausman returned to the dugout four pitches later as he began a streak of seven straight Orioles hitters retired entering the fourth. That’s when Adley Rutschman led off with a flare to right that fell just short of Teoscar Hernandez. And on Gausman’s very next pitch, second base umpire Jeff Nelson called him out for a balk, awarding Rachman second base. You’re probably familiar with the pre-pitch bounce in Guasman’s set-up. Apparently, so was Nelson. The pitch was Gausman’s first with a runner on base all afternoon and didn’t look any different from the 2,600+ pitches he’s thrown this season. Gausman had been called for a ban just once this year before Monday, and just three times in his 10-year career. But Nelson felt this was his fourth: If this doesn’t seem unusual to you, that’s because it isn’t. So Gausman always comes set. Here’s a side-by-side of Gausman’s balk (left) and the next pitch he threw with Rutschman standing at second (right): And here it slows down — again, it’s called balk on the left, just the next step on the right: To suggest that Gausman was incensed by the call would be an understatement. Perhaps the only thing that kept him in the game was Bo Bichette sprinting to intercept Gausman as he marched in Nelson’s direction. It eventually took both Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to hold Gausman back, while Blue Jays manager John Schneider took up the controversy on his behalf. Moments later, the dust still settling, Gausman was staring down the heart of the Baltimore lineup with nobody out and a runner on second. Of course, it hit the side. Of course, of course, of course, he did. He caught Santander — in his next plate appearance after taking Gausman deep — looking at a low ball that Alejandro Kirk had vacuumed in the zone. He got Ryan Mountcastle on a four-pitch, three-heater that set up a splitter to torpedo under the first baseman’s bat. And he got Ramon Urias with just three out, earning a pair of called hits before sitting the third baseman down with another splitter diving to the dirt. Walking from the mound, Gausman looked coolly in Nelson’s direction as he walked toward his dugout. And he carried that intensity into the fifth, when he again had to work his way out of a jam, getting a pair of fly outs and a grounder to lay down a pair of singles to lead off the inning. Gausman couldn’t escape another block in the sixth as Ryan Mountcastle drove in Rachman’s single, with soft contact — 72.7 mph exit velocity — pitches. But he got two outs with his next five pitches, snuffing out any hope of an Orioles rally. In the end, Gausman completed three trips through the Baltimore order, allowing just seven of the 27 batters he faced to reach base. He didn’t walk a batter for the ninth time in 26 starts this season, lowering his ERA to 3.12 and raising his FIP to 2.18 in the process. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays watched Orioles starter Mike Baumann make his first career start as a right-hander, putting nine balls in play 98 mph or faster in five innings. But they couldn’t separate that hard contact into many runs, tagging Baumann for just three on a day when he could have found him for many more. Alejandro Kirk was thrown out with a runner on first. Santiago Espinal bounced into a two-out double play in the second. and it took a Gunnar Henderson single at second base to prevent Kirk from ending another inning with a double play at third. Henderson’s poor turnover allowed a run to score, Toronto’s second after Cavan Biggio drove in Matt Chapman before the opener. Another came in the fifth as Henderson blasted another potential double-play grounder off the bat of Bo Bichette, settling for just one out at first instead of trying to close out the two. Take away those two Henderson clashers and it’s a vastly different ball game. And yet, that’s not how baseball works. So the Blue Jays had a one-run lead in the eighth when Teoscar Hernandez drove Bryan Baker deep into the dead zone for his 20th homer of the season. And though the Orioles answered with a solo shot of their own an inning later, as Santander ended an eight-pitch battle with Tim Mayza by wrapping a full-count sinker around the left field foul pole, that lead was one as the ninth inning. began. That’s when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. led off with a single against Hall, Santiago Espinal drew an 11-pitch walk, and George Springer and Guerrero followed with singles of their own to plate the aforementioned two. Bichette then lined another base hit to right — his third of the game — helping to further extend Toronto’s lead. In the end, the Blue Jays had 14 hits – Bichette, Springer and Gurriel each hit three. Every batter in the starting lineup reached base at least once. They gave an indicator of the kind of damage they plan to do in this three-game series and the nine games between these teams that follow over the next 30 days. But through eight innings, it was an intense, hotly contested, meaningful game. The game these two teams will likely play this September.
