Toronto pushes across a run in the 11th to avoid sweep, beat O's 6-5

An impressive Orioles comeback attempt came up short today when the Toronto Blue Jays pushed across a run against closer Jim Johnson in the top of the 11th this afternoon, to beat the Orioles 6-5 and avoid a sweep. The result snapped the Orioles' 17-game winning streak in regular season extra-inning games. After the potential winning run for the Orioles was thrown out at the plate in the last of the 10th, Toronto went ahead against Johnson. With two outs and none on, two straight singles and a hit by pitch loaded the bases. Then Maicer Izturis drew a four-pitch walk as the Blue Jays moved ahead by one. Johnson was pitching for the third day in a row, appearing in every game of this series. Brian Matusz came on to record the inning's third out. J.J. Hardy singled to left with two on and two out in the 10th and Manny Machado came around third trying to score to give the Orioles their third walk-off win in the last seven games. But left fielder Rajai Davis made a perfect on-the-fly throw to the plate to get the final out. Down 5-2, the Orioles scored three times in the last of the seventh to tie the game. Ryan Flaherty's fourth hit of the year was an RBI double and a Nate McLouth RBI single made it 5-4. Machado then delivered a game-tying RBI triple to right-center and it was even at 5-5. It was Machado's seventh RBI over his last five games. Over his last seven games, he is 10-for-29 with a homer, three doubles, a triple and eight RBIs. Earlier in the contest, the Blue Jays hit four loud homers off Josh Stinson, who was making his O's debut. It started with a two-run shot to right by J.P Arencibia in the second inning to move ahead 2-1. Arencibia began the day with seven homers, in a three-way tie for the league lead with Chris Davis and Mark Reynolds. Toronto would add solo homers by Davis, Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista. Stinson became the first O's starter to allow four homers since Jason Hammel last May 30 and that was also against the Jays. Today's attendance was 14,981. The Toronto series drew 39,421 after the weekend set against the Dodgers drew 113,324. The Orioles won all three series on this homestand, going 6-3 over the nine games. They now take a 12-9 record on the road for an 11-game, 11-day, West Coast road trip that starts Thursday night at Oakland.