Orioles double up Blue Jays, 4-2

Reuters

Trey Mancini, Chance Sisco, Anthony Santander and Jonathan Villar each had RBI doubles as the Baltimore Orioles defeat the visiting Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 in the opener of a three-game series Tuesday night.

Doubles were the big thing for the Orioles in this game. Baltimore finished with 11 hits, including a season-high six doubles.

John Means (6-4) battled through a 33-pitch first inning where he gave up a lead-off home run and struggled with his command at times but still allowed just one run in his five innings.

The left-hander gave up that run and scattered four hits while tying a career-high with seven strikeouts. Overall, Means threw 103 pitches.

Baltimore's bullpen, shaky at times, then took care of business. Shawn Armstrong threw two scoreless innings before Miguel Castro gave up a run in the eighth, and Richard Bleier got the final out of that frame. Mychal Givens then retired the side in order in the ninth and earned his sixth save.

Trent Thornton (1-5), the Toronto starter, also lasted five innings. He allowed three runs on seven hits, struck out four and gave up five of the six doubles.

The Blue Jays took a quick 1-0 lead when Eric Sogard started the game with a homer over the right-field scoreboard on Means' fourth pitch.

Baltimore wasted a good scoring chance in the second when Thornton walked the bases loaded but the Orioles left them that way. Then, Baltimore took the lead in the third on back-to-back RBI doubles from Mancini and Sisco which gave the Orioles a 2-1 edge.

They added another run thanks to a two-out rally in the fourth that featured a few more doubles. Villar got the first one, and he scored when Santander followed with another, a kind of bloop that fell between two Jays by the right field line and gave Baltimore a 3-1 lead.

The Blue Jays cut the margin to 3-2 when Randal Grichuk drove in a run with his own bloop double to right with two outs in the eighth. Villar added his RBI double in the bottom of that frame which gave Baltimore an insurance run.

--Field Level Media