Encarnacion with walk-off homer as O's season ends

TORONTO - What a tough way for a season to end.

Edwin Encarnacion's first-pitch three-run homer to left off Ubaldo Jimenez gave the Toronto Blue Jays a 5-2 walk-off win over the Orioles in the bottom of the 11th tonight. The Orioles' season is over and Toronto advances to face Texas.

Tied 2-2, Brian Duensing, the sixth Orioles pitcher, struck out Ezequiel Carrera. Then Jimenez, who blanked Toronto for 6 2/3 innings last Thursday came on. He allowed singles to Devin Travis and Josh Donaldson before Encarnacion's wild-card-winning blast which went 440 feet.

The Orioles never used closer Zach Britton tonight amid speculation that he possibly got hurt warming up earlier but we won't know more until after the game.

Toronto scored first on Jose Bautista's solo homer off O's starter Chris Tillman for the 1-0 lead in the second. It came on a 3-1 pitch and was the only hit Tillman yielded through four innings and 61 pitches.

In the top of the fourth the Orioles got the lead. Major league homer leader Mark Trumbo, playing in his first-ever postseason game, hit a two-run shot down the left-field line. He hit a first-pitch fastball at 95 mph from Marcus Stroman for the 2-1 lead. It scored Adam Jones who led off the frame with the Orioles' first hit, a single to right.

Trumbo's first-pitch homer just cleared the fence at 354 feet for his shortest tracked homer of the Statcast era. Trumbo hit 47 regular-season homers.

But Tillman would be pulled from the game as the Jays tied it 2-2 in the fifth. Michael Saunders reached on a ground-rule double to left. Then Kevin Pillar lined one toward the right-field corner. Michael Bourn had the ball glance off his glove for a double. But Pillar, waiting to see if the ball would be caught, advanced only to third. But he would scored when Carrera lined a single to center that ended Tillman's night.

Mychal Givens came on and got two huge outs with one pitch. His slider to Donaldson turned into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play and Givens kept the game tied 2-2. He had a super outing tonight, going 2 1/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts on just 19 pitches.

Tillman went 4 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and two runs with one walk and four strikeouts. He threw 74 pitches, 44 for strikes.

There was an incident in the bottom of the seventh. Left fielder Hyun Soo Kim had a bottle thrown in his direction from the stands as he caught a ball for the inning's last out. Kim looked up in the stands after the out as Jones rushed toward him. Manager Buck Showalter was out for several minutes talking to the umpires. It was certainly a classless thing for one fan to do tonight.

The Orioles had Britton warming up in the bottom of the eighth of the 2-2 tie, but Brad Brach, who entered to pitch the eighth, stayed in to start the bottom of the ninth.

Donaldson led off with double down the left-field line on a 3-1 pitch and Encarnacion was intentionally walked. After Bautista struck out, Buck Showalter called for Darren O'Day. He got a one-pitch double play off the bat of Russell Martin to send the wild card game to extra innings when the Blue Jays had designs of winning there in a walk-off.