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 by Jordan Westburg, who led off the first with a homer, opened the fateful ninth before Rutschman got just enough of a 94.7 m.p.h. fastball to clear after hitting off the top of the right-field wall, a call that survived replay.
The Blue Jays looked set for a steely series sweep after arriving 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 for recuperation and they headed into the finale with George Springer and Kevin Kiermaier well enough to start, 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 before Bo Bichette brought both home with a double that erased an early 1-0 deficit.
Then came Garcia, protecting that lead in the seventh, after coming in with runners on second and third, by tearing through the top of the Orioles lineup and then escaping another jam in the eighth after Anthony Santander opened the inning with a fluke cue shot double against the shift.
After one sacrifice bunt moved him to third, Jordan McCann’s safety squeeze attempt was fielded by Guerrero who relayed home to Danny Jansen for an out that survived replay.
Tim Mayza then struck out pinch hitter Ramon Urias to end the threat.
