Wild Card Watch: Indians get more help as Toronto beat Baltimore 4-3
TORONTO (AP) -- Colby Rasmus hit a two-run home run, Jeremy Jefress won for the first time in more than two years and the Toronto Blue Jays beat Baltimore 4-3 on Saturday, the slumping Orioles their fifth loss in seven games.
Baltimore, which came in 2 games behind Tampa Bay in the race for the second AL wild-card berth, failed to take advantage of the rival New York Yankees' loss at Boston earlier in the day.
Rasmus erased Baltimore's 3-2 lead with a drive off the facing of the second deck against Chris Tillman in the seventh inning. For Rasmus, it was his 20th homer of the season and second in two days.
After missing more than a month with a strained muscle in his left side, Rasmus was activated off the 15-day disabled list before Friday's game, hitting a solo homer off Jason Hammel in Baltimore's 5-3 win.
Rasmus' long ball Saturday made the Blue Jays the first team in the majors this season with at least five 20-homer players. Edwin Encarnacion (36), Jose Bautista (28), J.P. Arencibia (20) and Adam Lind (20) are the others.
The decisive homer was the 30th allowed by Tillman (16-6) this season. Only Oakland's A.J. Griffin (34) and Toronto's R.A. Dickey (31) have surrendered more.
Baltimore left eight runners stranded, four of them at third base.
Orioles slugger Chris Davis, who hit his 50th home run Friday, finished 1 for 4 with a double.
Jeffress (1-0) pitched one scoreless inning of relief to win for the first time since April 5, 2011, when he beat the Chicago White Sox while pitching for Kansas City.
Toronto's Aaron Loup got two outs in the eighth and Neil Wagner got the third, striking out Matt Wieters to strand runners at the corners.
Casey Janssen finished for his 30th save in 32 chances as the Blue Jays snapped a four-game losing streak
Tillman allowed four runs and six hits in eight innings to lose for the first time since Aug. 19, ending a five-start unbeaten run. The right-hander, who walked two and struck out four in his first career complete game, also failed to become Baltimore's first 17-game winner since Mike Mussina in 1999.
Back-to-back doubles by Manny Machado and Davis gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead in the first, snapping Blue Jays starter Esmil Rogers' scoreless innings streak at 15.
Toronto answered in the bottom half when Moises Sierra hit a two-out, two-run double.
Nick Markakis and J.J. Hardy drew back-to-back walks in the fourth and Wieters followed with an RBI single.
Gose hit a two-out triple in the second, but Jose Reyes flied out to end the inning. That was the first of eight straight outs by Tillman, a streak that ended when Gose singled in the fifth. Gose was later caught trying to steal second.
Brett Lawrie hit a leadoff single in the sixth but was erased on a double play. But Tillman's luck ran out after he walked Sierra to begin the seventh, with Rasmus homering on the very next pitch.
Rogers allowed three runs and five hits in six innings. He walked two and matched his career high with seven strikeouts.
NOTES: Machado's double in the first was his major league-leading 50th of the season. ... Orioles RHP Miguel Gonzalez (9-7) faces Toronto LHP Mark Buehrle (11-8) in Sunday's series finale.
