The Toronto Blue Jays lost another game that was in their grasp, getting walked off for the 13th time this season – the fourth time by the Baltimore Orioles and second time by Mark Trumbo.
The Baltimore slugger, the reigning American League home run champion, singled to deep left field with two out in the 12th, driving in Jonathan Schoop’s leadoff double and giving the home team a split of the four-game series. It was the Orioles’ first hit of the game with runners in scoring position. They had been 0-for-16 to that point.
Here are some other things that stood out to me about the Blue Jays’ 74th loss of the season:
RAMIREZ LOOKING TERRIFIC AGAIN – The story of Carlos Ramirez’s greatness continued unabated as the 26-year-old rookie threw another pair of scoreless extra innings in his second big-league sortie.
Ramirez, who converted from playing the outfield to pitching just three years ago, made his major-league debut Friday night, entering in a 0-0 tie in the 10th inning. Facing the top of the dangerous Baltimore lineup, he struck out the first two batters he faced en route to two perfect innings of relief.
The big righty was called upon Sunday afternoon, again in a tie game, again in the bottom of the 10th inning. This time, he gave up a hit – a one-out double to Chris Davis in the 10th – but he retired the other six Orioles he faced, two by strikeout, to run his streak to 41.2 innings this season without giving up an earned run.
It’s his career-high in innings pitched, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can maintain his greatness for the rest of the month, but Ramirez is certainly making a rather emphatic early-career statement that he not only belongs in the big leagues, but he belongs in a high-leverage spot in a big-league bullpen.
OSUNIC ISSUES – Roberto Osuna’s post-all-star break troubles continued on Sunday as his run of two weeks without a blown save came to a screeching halt when Welington Castillo, who has owned the Blue Jays this season, took the 22-year-old pitcher deep to lead off the bottom of the ninth, erasing a 4-3 Blue Jays lead.
Osuna, who has had issues with fastball velocity this summer, threw Castillo consecutive heaters at 94, 95 and 96 m.p.h., but then tried to tie him up with a 2-2 cutter on the inner part of the plate. It leaked out towards the middle and Castillo clubbed it for his fifth home run against the Jays this year.
Osuna had a run of 22 straight save opportunities converted from April 29 to July 17, but since the break has come through in only 13 of 19 save chances.
His nine blown saves have him tied for the major-league lead with Atlanta’s Jim Johnson, and that total is third in Blue Jays history, behind Duane Ward’s 12 in 1989 and the much-maligned Joey McLaughlin’s 11 in 1983.
MORE RAIN – Josh Donaldson’s 25th home run of the season was a three-run shot in the third inning that opened the scoring, continuing the former MVP’s scorching run since the end of July.
It was Donaldson’s 16th home run since July 27, which leads the American League, and his 10th big fly in his last 20 games.
Donaldson went into that July 27 game hitting just .238/.365/.424, but since then, he’s at a blistering .299/.416/.717 for a 1.133 OPS. His overall OPS for the season has gone up a whopping 129 points in that span.
He may also have made the catch of the game in the eighth inning, hauling in a Jonathan Schoop line drive hit 113 m.p.h. that was headed right for his teeth.
CAPTAIN CANADA RETURNS – Michael Saunders was an all-star with the Blue Jays last season, but they had no room for him this year so he signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies. That didn’t work out and, when the Phils released him in mid-summer, Saunders quickly signed a minor-league deal to rejoin the Blue Jays organization.
The Victoria, B.C., native got a September call-up, and came into Sunday’s game to pinch-hit for Teoscar Hernandez with two out and Ryan Goins at third in a 3-3 tie.
Facing tough Orioles righty Darren O’Day, Saunders ripped a 1-0 fastball to first and it ate up Chris Davis, sneaking in to right field to cash the go-ahead run, giving the Blue Jays the lead they held into the ninth.
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