BALTIMORE (AP) — Kevin Gausman made a triumphant return to Camden Yards and Teoscar Hernández homered, leading the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Monday in the opener of a doubleheader.
Gausman (11-9) allowed two runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings in his first start at Baltimore since he was acquired in a 2018 trade with the Orioles. The right-hander won consecutive starts for the first time since May.
Toronto won its fourth in a row and increased its lead over Baltimore for the American League’s third wild card to 3 1/2 games. The Blue Jays and Orioles play 10 times over the final 31 days of the regular season.
Anthony Santander homered from both sides of the plate for Baltimore, which has lost two in a row after a four-game win streak. Adley Rutschman had two hits and scored a run.
Hernández hit his 20th homer in the eighth, a solo shot that lifted Toronto to a 4-2 lead. After Santander connected in the bottom half, the Blue Jays put it away with three runs in the ninth.
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The 31-year-old Gausman was back in a familiar environment for the first time in more than four years. Baltimore took the right-hander with the No. 4 pick in the 2012 draft, and he zipped through the team’s minor league system. Gausman debuted in 2013 and was 24-20 with a 3.70 ERA in 70 appearances at Camden Yards before he was dealt to Atlanta in July 2018.
His biggest obstacle Monday was arguably a fourth-inning balk call. Gausman stormed off the mound and started arguing with second base umpire Jeff Nelson before Bichette rushed in to hold him back.
Gausman is 4-1 with a 2.63 ERA in seven starts since Aug. 2.
Mike Baumann (1-3), who served as Baltimore’s 29th man for the doubleheader, yielded three runs in five innings in his first major league start. Baumann, who made 11 relief appearances with the Orioles in the last two seasons, struck out two.
Toronto tied it at 1 in the second when Matt Chapman doubled and Cavan Biggio singled him home. Alejandro Kirk’s grounder brought in a run in the third, and Bichette made it 3-1 with a run-scoring groundout in the fifth.
Santander also hit a solo drive in the first in his seventh career multihomer game. Ryan Mountcastle delivered an RBI double in the sixth.
The holiday doubleheader included a makeup of an Aug. 10 rainout during Toronto’s first visit to Baltimore this season.
TRANSACTIONS
Blue Jays: RHP Zach Pop was added as the team’s 29th man. Pop worked a scoreless ninth in the opener.
Orioles: In addition to adding Baumann, Baltimore recalled RHP Beau Sulser from Triple-A Norfolk and optioned RHP Rico Garcia to Norfolk. Garcia had a 4.50 ERA in six games with the Orioles. … Baltimore claimed RHP Jake Reed off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers and placed INF Jonathan Araúz on the restricted list. RHP Phoenix Sanders cleared outright waivers and was assigned to Norfolk.
UP NEXT
Toronto right-hander José Berríos (9-5, 5.32 ERA) and Baltimore right-hander Jordan Lyles (10-9, 4.25 ERA start the second game.
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