Toronto rallies to beat Orioles and move closer to AL East crown

The Orioles ended their scoreless streak, but not their losing streak.

Toronto rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Orioles 4-3 tonight in the series opener and opening game of a seven-game homestand to conclude the 2015 regular season. With the loss, the Orioles fall to 76-80 with four straight defeats. Their elimination number is one and a Houston win later would eliminate them from playoff consideration.

After Toronto tied the score 3-3 in the eighth, the Blue Jays moved ahead against Brad Brach in the ninth. Dioner Navarro and Kevin Pillar led with off with singles. Pinch-runner Dalton Pompey and Pillar advanced on a sacrifice bunt. Justin Smoak then hit a slow roller to first and Chris Davis' throw home sailed over Matt Wieters' head as a run scored for the 4-3 lead. Wieters grabbed the errant throw and tagged out Pillar also trying to score on that play.

Right-hander Chris Tillman began this game 0-4 with an ERA of 15.50 in five starts this year against the Blue Jays. But he allowed five hits and two runs over 7 1/3 innings, throwing 104 pitches. It was his longest outing since July 29 and the first time this year he allowed fewer then five runs against Toronto.

The Orioles went to the last of the second trailing 1-0. Edwin Encarnacion's solo homer in the top of the inning gave Toronto the 1-0 lead. Encarnacion hit No. 36 on an 0-1 pitch from Tillman.

But the O's went ahead and scored for the first time since the eighth inning on Thursday when Ryan Flaherty hit a three-run homer to left on a first-pitch changeup from Marco Estrada. That ended the Orioles 29-innings scoreless streak, four innings shy of a team record of 33 set in 1957.

Wieters singled with one out in the second and went to second on Jonathan Schoop's base hit. They both scored on Flaherty's ninth homer. Flaherty has hit nine of his 32 career homers against Toronto.

The 3-1 lead held until the top of the eighth when Toronto rallied against Tillman and Darren O'Day. O'Day allowed RBI singles to Ben Revere and Jose Bautista as Toronto tied it 3-3.

The Blue Jays improved to 46-19 since the All-Star break and to 91-65 overall with a fifth consecutive win. They are 10-6 against the Orioles on the year and reduced their magic number to three, which decreases to two if the Yankees lose to Boston.

In the second game of this four-game series on Tuesday night, Miguel Gonzalez (9-11, 4.85 ERA) pitches against right-hander Marcus Stroman (3-0, 1.89 ERA).