TORONTO — With their season on the line, the Orioles put away their power bats and instead opted for small-ball as the path to their 4-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night at Rogers Centre.
The Orioles lead the majors with 247 home runs this season, and on nights when they haven't been able to hit the ball out, their offense has had few other answers.
But they offered a much different look Thursday as they won for the second straight night and moved into a tie with the Blue Jays for the first American League wild-card spot as they finish their regular-season with three games at Yankee Stadium this weekend.
Resorting to small ball was a break from the norm for the Orioles, and even though their offense has been short on production lately, Thursday's output was more than enough for right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, who allowed just one hit in 6 2/3 scoreless innings.
"We had some hits to take advantage of few opportunities that [Blue Jays starter Marcus] Stroman gave us," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "He's been pitching really well, too. That's a tough pitching staff. So, we'll move on to the next city."
The Orioles (87-72) kept the ball in play against Stroman and delivered hits with runners on base — the type that had been lacking of late. Thursday marked just the second time in 12 games that they've scored more than three runs.
"Today we showed different type of stuff," said right-fielder Michael Bourn, who drove in a run, scored another, drew a walk and stole a base. "We got RBIs when men were on third, not trying to hit the long ball and we brought them in. We've got good hitters on this team. They know how to do that. In the postseason, if we are able to get to that point, you'll need that as well."
After J.J. Hardy opened the third inning with a double, Adam Jones moved him to third with a groundout to the right side, and Hardy scored the game's first run two batters later on Manny Machado's sacrifice fly to deep center field.
The Orioles rallied again in the fourth, getting back-to-back one-out singles from Chris Davis and Jonathan Schoop to put runners at the corners. Bourn hit a grounder to third that could have been an inning-ending double play, but Josh Donaldson's throw drew second baseman Devon Travis off the bag; the Blue Jays were lucky to get the force out at second.
Hyun Soo Kim drove in Bourn — who drew a leadoff walk and stole second — on a two-out single to right field to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead in the seventh.
Mark Trumbo sped out of the batter's box in the eighth, stretching a single into a leadoff double, and then came in to score on Matt Wieters' RBI single.
Orioles get key overturned call: Jimenez fielded his position well throughout the night, and was the beneficiary of a call that was overturned after an Orioles manager's challenge in the seventh.
Troy Tulowitzki hit a ball just to the left of the mound that Jimenez bobbled, but he recovered to make a throw to first. First base umpire Ted Barrett initially called Tulowitzki safe, but video review showed that Jimenez's throw just beat Tulowitzki's foot to the bag.
Jones' jolt just short: Both Jimenez and Stroman kept damage to a minimum throughout the night, and the hardest hit ball was off the bat of Jones in the seventh. It ended as a long flyout.
Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar made a jumping catch against the center-field fence to take away a hit from Jones.