O's use homer power to rally past Jays, go to 7-2 (with quotes)

TORONTO - The struggling Toronto Blue Jays, seeking to break a six-game losing streak, worked their way into a 3-1 lead through four innings tonight.

But the Orioles, a club that can suddenly hit homers in bunches, then did just that. They hammered three out over the fifth and sixth innings and added a fourth in the ninth to rally to a 6-4 victory over the Blue Jays in front of 39,547 at Rogers Center.

The first-place Orioles are off to a 7-2 start while last-place Toronto falls to 1-9 and has lost seven in a row. The Orioles have won six straight regular season games versus Toronto.

There was ninth-inning drama involving closer Zach Britton for the second time in two nights. On to protect a 6-3 lead, he allowed three singles and a run in the inning. He had gone 19 straight scoreless appearances since last Aug. 24. But Britton got Steve Pearce for the last out for the second night in a row. He fanned Pearce to strand the potential tying runs.

Britton has recorded 54 straight saves to tie Tom Gordon for the second-longest run ever since saves became an official stat in 1969. Earlier, Darren O'Day pitched the seventh and Brad Brach fanned the side with some overpowering stuff in the eighth.

Trailing 3-1, the Orioles hit two homers to take a 4-3 lead in the fifth. Jonathan Schoop led off the frame and blasted an Aaron Sanchez 93 mph fastball 419 feet for his fifth hit in his last nine at-bats and second homer of 2017. Hyun Soo Kim then doubled and seconds later, J.J. Hardy homered to left on a 1-1 curveball. The two-run shot gave the O's a 4-3 lead. It happened quickly - three batters, two homers, three runs.

That lead grew by one on a long Chris Davis homer to center leading off the sixth inning. It was No. 3 for Davis, who also doubled tonight after going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in the series opener. It went 417 feet and was his 18th career Rogers Centre home run. Davis is 8-for-18 (.444) in his career with four homers off Sanchez.

The Orioles got another homer when Seth Smith blasted a Jason Grilli slider out to right in the ninth for the 6-3 lead and his second homer.

The Orioles have hit nine homers over their last three games and have 14 for the season.

Sanchez, the AL ERA last year when he went 15-2 with a 3.00 ERA, took the loss. He went 5 1/3 innings and gave up seven hits and five runs, including the three home runs.

Orioles left-hander Wade Miley gave the club a solid outing and a quality start tonight. He struck out the side in the first inning and pitched six frames. He gave up five hits and three runs with no walks and eight strikeouts. In his first start, he walked seven in five scoreless Sunday against the Yankees. Miley has an ERA of 2.45 through his first two 2017 starts.

Over his last five regular-season starts dating to last September, Miley has pitched to a 2.12 ERA.

Earlier, Davis doubled and later scored on a wild pitch in the second for a 1-0 lead. But Toronto moved ahead in the last half of the inning, going up 2-1 on Justin Smoak's RBI single and on an error by O's third baseman Manny Machado that plated a run. The lead grew to 3-1 on Smoak's solo home run in the fourth. He hit Miley's 90 mph fastball 412 to give Toronto a lead, but one they would not hold.

The Orioles are 4-0 this season against the Blue Jays and have taken the first two games in this four-game series. On Saturday afternoon at 1:07 p.m., right-hander Alec Asher makes his Orioles debut and faces right-hander Marco Estrada ( 0-1, 5.73 ERA).

Note: Home plate umpire Dale Scott suffered a concussion in the eighth inning when a Mark Trumbo foul ball struck him hard in his mask and he fell to the ground. Reporters were told he will not work the rest of this series.

Checking in with postgame quotes:

Manager Buck Showalter on Miley's first two starts: "Good. Just a little better command of secondary pitches (this start). Once he got into a good tempo and gave Caleb (Joseph) some weapons to work with, he could kind of rock it back and forth. He really never got in any predictable sequence. Lot of strikes. Lot of fun to play behind. Very similar script to (Kevin) Gausman last night. That is a tough lineup to go through, especially for left-handers. You can talk about all parts of the game but the key was Wade's outing."

Showalter on the injury to Scott: "Oh, my gosh. I think it's just a reminder of the challenges physically and the risk taken every night by catchers, umpires and that one, I know Dale had some concussions last year. I'm heading over to the lockerroom so I can see if they have any news. That one didn't sound good. Someone said the replay (showed), it hit like his chin and hit his throat guard? I'm hoping for the best. That one was not good."

Miley on his strong night: "I just spent some time slowing down a little bit throughout the week and slowing my delivery down and I was able to command the fastball a little better. I had the breaking ball a little bit as well. I was able to throw the backdoor slider and then bury it when I needed to. Caleb did an outstanding job. I can't say enough about the way we worked together. I'd seen him working back there hard for me and it's a pretty good feeling. Definitely the command was there tonight, where it was nonexistent the other day."

Miley on throwing well five straight starts, dating to 2016: "To be honest with you, it kind of goes back to Scotty McGregor and the talk I had with him in the outfield last year, I think right in September when he got over there, just (telling me) to try easier. It kind of stuck with me. I think I was working too hard throughout games and trying to do too much. And I just kind of backed off and tried to rely more on location. It sounds kind of crazy but my misses were killing me last year. I was missing over the plate and now my misses are off the plate and I'm going to keep working and keep trying to execute."

Caleb Joseph feels Miley will put together a solid season: "There's no doubt in my mind that that's going to be a normal start for Wade night in, night out. There are things I think he's tapping into here that are going to help him be really successful. He's really using both sides of the plate. Look, if you get enough years in this league, they kind of get a book on you, right? And Wade's got the ability to move pitches around to different areas and locations and continue to change the book. That's what we did tonight and I thought it was really successful. In my opinion, I wasn't shocked or surprised at all by the way he pitched tonight. That should be his normal."

Joseph feels Miley has plenty of weapons: "Absolutely. He was working four pitches and command of all four pitches. It wasn't like you had to bag one after the third inning because he didn't have command of it. He had command of all four pitches and command of those pitches both inside and out, up and down. I don't care who you are. You have four pitches in the big leagues that you can command for strikes, I don't care if you're throwing 85 mph. Jamie Moyer made a good living. And Wade's got some velo behind that fastball, which makes it tougher, especially coming left handed."