Pete Alonso’s fist was raised to the sky long before the ball Colton Cowser struck landed. Alonso knew where it was headed.
Cowser’s third home run in the past seven days, a three-run shot, eventually settled in the right-center field seats and was the exclamation point of a five-run third inning that put the Orioles ahead by six. Leads of that margin haven’t been safe during this wild four-game set against the Blue Jays. But a nine-run output and Kyle Bradish helped ensure Sunday’s series finale would feature no such comeback in a 9-5 Baltimore win over Toronto.
Combined with Saturday’s thrilling 6-5 victory, in which the Orioles (28-32) scored five runs in the ninth inning, Sunday’s result made for a promising end to the weekend series and 10-game homestand, which saw the Orioles go 7-3. And it happened in front of 34,476, the third largest crowd at Camden Yards this season.
“I’m not going to say the team needed it, but I think it’s one of those things that is encouraging and keeps morale up, keeps confidence up, and hopefully continue to build momentum,” Cowser said.
They dropped the first two games to the Blue Jays (29-31) after sweeping the Rays and taking two of three from the Tigers earlier in the week, but a pair of memorable victories against the team directly above them in the American League East standings pulled the Orioles within one game of third place in the division.
“Definitely kind of emblematic of what we’re capable of, and we’ve shown that we’re a resilient group,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “I think now we’re starting to play a complete baseball game.”
Still, a further look at the standings tells the story of a team searching. Baltimore entered Sunday 10 games back of Tampa Bay atop the AL East through 60 contests. There’s still time to close that gap, but it continues widening.
To get there, the Orioles will need Bradish to make starts like Sunday more common. The right-hander did just that in May, closing the month with a 1.72 ERA over his last five starts to drop his season mark to 3.44.
On Sunday, Bradish completed seven innings without an earned run on four strikeouts and four hits.
“These past few outings, I feel like I’m competing a lot better than I did in the beginning of the year,” Bradish said. “Command’s gotten a lot better. I just feel like I’m in a really good spot right now.”
He cruised through six scoreless innings before running into his first trouble in the seventh. He allowed his first run, albeit unearned because of a Jackson Holliday throwing error that could have ended the frame. And Bradish’s third walk of the game on his 90th pitch brought pitching coach Drew French from the dugout.
The right-hander struck out the next batter to end the inning and his afternoon.
Bradish’s counterpart did not have similar success. Cowser’s home run helped chase Blue Jays starter Spencer Miles, who lasted just three innings after giving up six earned runs on five hits and three walks.
The Orioles manufactured their first run against Miles in the second inning. Pete Alonso led off with a single, reached second base on Samuel Basallo’s walk and was pushed to third on a successful Leody Taveras bunt, then Cowser scored Alonso on an RBI groundout.
Alonso was the one driving in runs to spark a rally his next time up. In the third, the first baseman singled to score Gunnar Henderson before Basallo doubled to bring home Adley Rutschman and grow the cushion for Bradish to 3-0. Cowser added three more with one swing.
“We all know what Cowser is capable of and it’s no secret he’s been grinding,” Albernaz said. “It’s been getting better, his at-bat quality, and especially this homestand, the ability to do damage and get off his swing and not miss it, especially pitches in the strike zone. It’s been really impressive. I think early in the year, he’s usually just missing those or just clipping them, but now he’s getting his swing off.”
“There’s ebbs and flows of a season,” Cowser said. “I felt like I was on kind of a negative flow there for a little bit, and being able to turn the page a little bit and just keep working and have some success show up, it’s more so a sign of the work that’s been being put in.”
The Orioles added three more in the sixth, an inning that featured Blue Jays right fielder Jesús Sánchez exiting the game after being hit by a ball thrown onto the field by a fan who was promptly removed from the stadium. Sánchez called the incident a misunderstanding with a kid, who thought the Toronto outfielder gestured to play catch during a mound visit. Taylor Ward, Henderson and Rutschman drove in the runs to extend the Orioles’ lead to 9-1.
Tyler Wells allowed four runs and a Eutaw Street homer in the eighth inning as the Blue Jays threatened with the late-inning magic that the past two days have featured before Rico Garcia sealed Baltimore’s win with a clean ninth.
Next is a trip to Boston, a homecoming for the Massachusetts native Albernaz, then farther north to Toronto, more chances against the bottom of the AL East. The heightened importance of such games as the calendar turns isn’t escaping the Orioles.
“These victories are huge for us,” said Basallo, who went 2-for-3 with a walk Sunday to bring his season OPS to .861. “It gives us great energy and allows us to have that sort of reset, especially going into this big road trip ahead.”
Around the horn
• Left-hander Dietrich Enns cleared waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple-A Norfolk after being designated for assignment Tuesday. The 35-year-old reliever has a 3.94 ERA in 13 games this season.
• Right-hander Ryan Helsley said Sunday morning, after throwing a bullpen session Saturday, that he hopes to return from the injured list in June. The closer, who signed a two-year, $28 million contract this offseason, hasn’t pitched since April 28 with right elbow inflammation.
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