Rutschman's heroics leave Blue Jays one escape short in gut-punch loss to Orioles

BALTIMORE — There were only so many escapes for the Toronto Blue Jays in the late innings Wednesday afternoon at Camden Yards. After Yimi Garcia got out of an inherited seventh-inning jam on his own, then teamed with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Tim Mayza to snuff out another rally in the eighth, Jordan Romano surrendered a walk-off two-run homer to Adley Rutschman in a gut-punch 3-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

A weird-hop single up the middle by Jordan Westburg, who led off the first inning with a homer, opened the fateful frame before Rutschman caught just enough of a 94.7 m.p.h. fastball to clear the top of the right-field wall.

An umpire review checked for fan interference. There wasn’t any. Big dub for the hosts, tough L for the still-trying-to-get-rolling Blue Jays.

“It's tough to really win two against a team when you don't score a bunch,” said manager John Schneider. “But a lot of good signs between our pitching, our defence and the way we drove a really good pitcher out (Kyle Bradish) after four innings. Had the bases loaded there (in the fifth) with (Davis) Schneider, couldn't add on, just certain things like that we want to capitalize on. But came in here and I thought we played really, really well against a good team, and at times outplayed them.”

For a while, the Blue Jays indeed looked set for a steely series sweep, having arrived in Baltimore miserably sick, both from dropping two of three in the previous series against the Minnesota Twins and from a viral illness that’s been tearing through the clubhouse for about a month. On Monday, they pulled out a 3-2 win against the Orioles despite having only nine position players healthy enough to play and Jose Berrios uncertain to start until his fever broke in the morning.

Tuesday’s rainout offered some time to recuperate, and they headed into the finale with Yusei Kikuchi starting and Chris Bassitt pushed back to Friday’s series opener versus the Tampa Bay Rays, with George Springer and Kevin Kiermaier well enough to start, and with Justin Turner jumping in for Daniel Vogelbach midway through.

Springer, who described his past few days getting over illness as “pretty brutal,” doubled ahead of a Guerrero infield single in the third. Bo Bichette, who had two hits and a walk while reaching for the eighth time in nine games, brought both home with a double that erased an early 1-0 deficit and seemed set to propel the Blue Jays to victory.

“I'm getting my swing off,” Bichette said of his recent surge. “But I've dug myself a pretty big hole, so I’ve got a long way to go.”

Kikuchi, meanwhile, pitched out of jams in the second and fourth innings to keep the score 2-1, but combined with nine strikeouts, he made it through only 4.1 strong innings.

“I knew it was a tight ballgame so I didn't really think about my pitch count and just gave my all so that I could put up zeroes,” Kikuchi said of handling his two trouble spots, through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “That's what led to the pitch count going up, but I'm fine with it.”

Still, the Blue Jays were efficiently building a bridge to leverage until the seventh, when a James McCann bloop to right off the glove of an outstretched Guerrero and double into the gap by Austin Hays off Genesis Cabrera put men on second and third with none out.

In came Garcia to tear through the top of the Orioles lineup, striking out Westburg and after an intentional walk to Rutchsman, popping up Ryan Mountcastle for the second out and then getting Gunnar Henderson on a grounder to first.

An inning later, Garcia ended up in another jam when Anthony Santander started the inning with a fluke cue shot double against the shift and was sacrificed to third. McCann then dropped a two-out safety squeeze that was fielded by Guerrero, who relayed home to Danny Jansen for an out that stood after replay.

Mayza then struck out pinch hitter Ramon Urias to end the threat and protect a 2-1 lead.

Then came the ninth when Romano, who threw two clean innings Monday, watched Westburg’s grounder up the middle kick left on Isiah Kiner-Falefa for a single before Rutschman hit his ninth homer of the season.

“He’s going to win an MVP,” said John Schneider. “He's organizational changing for them, obviously. He commands the zone. He can do damage. Good at-bat by him.”

Both teams had their chances for more runs – the Blue Jays went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position, the Orioles 0-for-10 – but scoring remains a primary issue for the former, as opposed to the latter.

A major reason why they’re 19-23 is that their 152 runs rank 29^th in the majors, better only than the Chicago White Sox. At the same time, the Blue Jays are now 3-3 against the Phillies, Twins and Orioles since a team meeting that followed an 11^th loss in 15 outings last week in Philadelphia as they seek to turn a corner.

Guerrero and Bichette have helped drive the offence over the past week, which may be the most encouraging sign for an offence, a team still trying to find its way.

“We played with a little bit more life, not just this series, but back home against Minnesota, too,” said Bichette. “Just a little bit more energy, no matter what the score was, point in the game, which obviously is very important to compete until the end. So just continue to do that.”

Getting Springer, Turner and Kiermaier back up to speed should help lengthen the lineup, too, even if they weren’t 100 per cent yet on Wednesday. But the season doesn’t stop, the Blue Jays are still spinning their wheels and the time to leave the cap-tipping for others is nigh.

“You just basically try to stiff-arm it,” Springer said of playing through illness. “No one is going to feel sorry for you so just go play. The only one that knows how you feel is you and the guys in the locker room. You just have to say screw it for three hours or however long the game lasts and give 100 per cent of whatever it is that you've got that day.”

It looked like that would be enough on a weird weather day in Baltimore, until the Blue Jays ran into the one jam they couldn’t escape.