One to clinch: Orioles beat Toronto, reduce magic number to one

Wei-Yin Chen certainly has had sharper outings. But tonight, he minimized the damage and won his 16th game as the Orioles beat Toronto 5-2 at Camden Yards. The Orioles have reduced their magic number to clinch the American League East to one. They can win the division title here on Tuesday night. The Orioles are a season-high 30 games over .500 at 90-60 and have won eight of their last nine and 17 of the last 22 games. Both benches were warned in the last of the sixth when Toronto starter Marcus Stroman buzzed a pitch near Caleb Joseph's head. This was in apparent retaliation for Jose Reyes getting spiked on the hand by Joseph on a play at the plate in the fifth. The Orioles seem to feel that was certainly not intentional on Joseph's part, but they clearly were miffed at Stroman's head-buzzing pitch. Chen had runners on in every inning but one. He gave up nine hits, but just the two runs over 5 2/3 innings. He improves to 16-4 with an ERA of 3.58. Chen entered this outing 0-2 with a 8.10 ERA in two career starts against Toronto. Over the last 14 games, Orioles starters are 7-1 with an ERA of 1.69 and have allowed two earned runs or fewer 11 times. The O's took an early 5-1 lead scoring twice each in the first and fourth, and once in the third. Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz had RBI singles, and Ryan Flaherty hit a two-run shot in the fourth. It was No. 7 for Flaherty. The Orioles improved to 8-6 against Toronto and to a major league-best 28-8 (.778) at home since June 30. The Orioles look to clinch the AL East here tomorrow night at Camden Yards when Ubaldo Jimenez (4-9, 4.96 ERA) faces Drew Hutchison (10-11, 4.36 ERA).