Jordan Westburg homered twice, Colton Cowser socked a leadoff blast, and The Mountain made his long-awaited return as the Orioles outslugged the Blue Jays.
It’s official: The Mountain is back.
Félix Bautista made his much-anticipated return to the mound this afternoon in Toronto, striking out the side in a scoreless ninth inning to wrap up a 9-5 win. Before that, the O’s smacked three more home runs and overturned a fourth-inning deficit thanks to a Ramón Urías three-run double, putting them in position to win the series in tomorrow’s finale.
Hall of Fame-bound right-hander Max Scherzer was making his Blue Jays debut, but consider Colton Cowser unimpressed. The leadoff man lifted a 417-foot dinger to center field, and just two pitches into the game, the Orioles had a 1-0 lead. As far as today’s game-opening accomplishments around MLB, it wasn’t quite the equal of the Yankees hitting three home runs on the first three pitches, but it’ll do.
Later in the inning, Cowser’s BFF Jordan Westburg bopped a solo homer of his own, taking one out to left-center field for the second time in the series, and the Orioles had staked Dean Kremer to a 2-0 lead before he took the mound.
It, unfortunately, took only five batters for Kremer to squander the advantage. The first three batters greeted him with sharp singles, capped by Anthony Santander’s run-scoring knock that gave him his first RBI as a Blue Jay. Well…congrats, I guess. Two batters later, Alejandro Kirk’s sac fly knotted the score.
The tie carried into the bottom of the third, which Kremer began with a Bo Bichette walk. He buckled down to strike out his nemesis Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Santander, but of all people it was Andrés Giménez — who had just nine dingers and a .340 SLG last season — who burned him for a two-run homer, already his second of the series. That gave the Jays a 4-2 lead.
When the top of the fourth rolled around, Scherzer — who had settled down after his shaky first, retiring seven Orioles in a row — was no longer on the mound. The Blue Jays later announced that he left the game with right lat soreness. These things happen when you’re 40, Max. Welcome to the club. But what a bummer of a way for him to have to leave in his first start of the season.
Scherzer’s misfortune was a game-changing opportunity for the Orioles, who jumped all over his middle-relief replacements. First up was lefty Richard Lovelady, who couldn’t find the strike zone with a map and a compass. Ryan O’Hearn led off the inning with a left-on-left bloop double, and with one out, Lovelady drilled Cedric Mullins. Hey! Watch it, buddy. Don’t hurt our players.
The next batter was Heston Kjerstad, and Lovelady…plunked him too. HEY! WHAT DID I JUST SAY? DO WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE, RICHARD?? With the bases loaded, Gary Sánchez delivered a POFO — productive out for Orioles — with a sac fly, and Lovelady re-loaded the bases by walking Jackson Holliday.
It was Ramón Urías who delivered the pivotal blow. The Birds’ #9 hitter lashed a shot to deep right with Santander in dogged pursuit. In his Orioles days, we saw Anthony make his share of awkward, twisting, lunging catches at the wall, but fortunately it didn’t happen here as the ball sailed over his head and off the fence. All three runners came home on the clutch Urías double, putting the Orioles back in front, 6-4.
The O’s continued to pile on in the fifth against righty Jacob Barnes, courtesy of an Adley Rutschman double, Westburg single, Mullins RBI single, and Kjerstad sac fly, extending the lead to 8-4. Kremer promptly allowed the first two batters of the Blue Jays’ fifth to reach base, but limited the damage to one run.
After retiring the first batter of the sixth inning, Kremer was done. He wasn’t good — five runs, five hits in 5.1 innings — but give him credit for getting into the sixth, at least. Kremer had a real problem with odd-numbered innings today; in the first, third, and fifth, he gave up five runs and seven baserunners. In the even-numbered innings, he retired all seven batters he faced.
The Orioles capped their scoring in the seventh when Westburg socked yet another center-field home run, his second of the game and third of the year, and the 10th for the Orioles in just their first three games. These guys like dingers! Me too.
From there it was just a matter of sweating through the Orioles’ questionable bullpen. For the most part, the guys did a good job this afternoon — Keegan Akin got two outs, and Yennier Cano pitched a scoreless seventh in his season debut — but there always seems to be one guy who doesn’t have it on any given day. This time it was Gregory Soto, fresh off his three-strikeout performance on Friday, who walked two of the three batters he faced in the eighth. Seranthony Domínguez, though, bailed him out by retiring the next two.
And in the ninth, it was Mountain Time at long last. Félix Bautista’s first MLB game action since August 2023 wasn’t perfect — he allowed a Bichette double and walked Santander on four pitches nowhere near the zone — but he proved he still has dominant, strikeout-inducing stuff. In vintage Félix form, he fanned Nathan Lukes on a nasty 3-2 splitter in the dirt. Later he unleashed another unhittable split to whiff Guerrero, and finally got Giménez to chase — you guessed it — a splitter for a game-ending punchout. Good old Felix. There’s a sight for sore eyes for Orioles fans everywhere.
Winning 9 to 5 — what a way to make a living. And the Birds are back in the win column.