Showalter, Gausman and Britton after O's hold off Jays 2-1

TORONTO - In the end, all the Toronto Blue Jays needed was a sac fly with one out or bloop single with two outs and they could have pinned a blown save and/or a loss on Orioles closer Zach Britton. But they couldn't get that and Britton recorded his 53rd consecutive save tonight as the Orioles beat Toronto 2-1.

The Orioles are now 6-2 on the year, 3-0 versus Toronto and 4-0 in one-run games.

Jonathan Schoop's RBI double and J.J. Hardy's RBI single in the fifth had given them a 2-0 lead that turned into a 2-1 game on Josh Donaldson's run-scoring double in the sixth.

But despite an offense that struck out 15 times tonight, four Orioles pitchers held struggling Toronto to six hits and a 1-for-8 mark with runners in scoring position. After Kevin Gausman's strong six innings, Darren O'Day and Brad Brach retired six batters in a row setting the stage for some drama, but no blown save, in the ninth.

Looking to go 4-for-4 in saves on the year, Britton gave up a one-out single to Troy Tulowitzki and walked Russell Martin on a 3-2 pitch. Then he threw a wild pitch with Kevin Pillar batting and both runners moved up. The tying run was 90 feet away - a run that would have resulted in Britton's first blown save since Sept. 20, 2015.

But the left-hander didn't buckle. He got Pillar on a groundout to short - with the infield drawn in and the runners holding their bases - and pinch-hitter Steve Pearce lined out to center. The drama was over, but Britton's saves streak was not.

"I think you just slow the game down," Britton said of keeping his poise there. "You don't make it a bigger deal than it is. A rollover through the hole from Tulowitzki. So, OK, (got a) ground ball. Close pitch to Martin. Good at-bat by him. So just make a pitch. Been there enough to where it's been easy, it's been hard. I know that if I just make a pitch, I can get out of it. So that is really all I'm thinking about. It's been a little easier, obviously, the more experience I get. But you're one pitch away most of the time and you just have to keep that in your mind."

It was a dramatic ending and Britton's mark of 53 straight saves is the third-best streak since baseball started keeping saves as a recognized stat in 1969. He is one behind Boston's Tom Gordon for second at 54 in a row and well behind the Dodgers' Eric Gagne, who amazingly recorded 84 straight saves from 2002-04.

"Pearcy squared up a ball. We were lucky it went right at Adam (Jones)," manager Buck Showalter said.

The good pitching tonight started with the starter. Gausman went six innings, allowing five hits and one run to improve to 1-0 with an ERA of 3.94. The Orioles are unbeaten in his three 2017 starts.

"He was good, really good," Showalter said. "A well-pitched game. We got in here about 4 or 4:30 (a.m.) like everybody does over the course of the season, and we needed a well-pitched game. We got it from Darren (O'Day), who has had two good games in a row and that's good to see. Brachie and Zach were going to pitch tonight regardless because of four days off. We needed all of them."

Schoop began the night hitting .174. But he doubled twice in three at-bats and drove in his fourth run of the year. Schoop homered last night at Boston and is 4-for-7 in his past two games.

"Jon, there wasn't much margin for error today and Jon squared a ball up," Showalter said. "(Francisco) Liriano didn't make many mistakes. There was such a small margin for error and most times you are not going to come out on the winning end of a game the way Liriano was pitching. But Kevin was a tad better."

Gausman was facing Toronto for the second time in 10 days. After limiting them to two runs in 5 1/3 innings on opening day, he held them to one tonight as Toronto falls to 1-8 on the year.

"It's kind of that mentally, put your foot on their throat while they're down," Gausman said of facing a slumping Jays team that has scored just four runs in going 0-3 versus the Orioles. "That's kind of the mentality. Obviously, they're scuffling a little bit, but they put together some really good at bats and the biggest thing was my defense played great.

"Any time you take the mound as a starter, you just want to keep your team in the game. Whether you give up five, you just got to keep it close. Obviously, my first two starts were a little shaky and I was kind of all over the place honestly trying to figure out my mechanics. So using my bullpen session to kind of get that rhythm back, it felt like I had it tonight, especially those first five innings."

The action didn't end when the game did. After the contest, the Orioles made two more trades tonight.