Tapia’s bases-clearing double leads Blue Jays past Orioles to widen gap in wildcard race

Raimel Tapia’s bases-clearing double in the fifth inning lifted the Toronto Blue Jays to a 6-3 win against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.

With the Blue Jays ahead 3-2, Tapia smacked a double to centre field with the bases loaded to improve Toronto’s record in September to a Major League Baseball best 13-4.

The Blue Jays (83-63) also widened their gap on the Orioles (75-69) to seven games in the American League wild-card race.

Toronto sits first in the battle for the three wild-card spots, while the Orioles are fourth.

The Blue Jays scored a run in the first inning on Matt Chapman’s sacrifice fly and two more in the second when Cavan Biggio and Santiago Espinal knocked one-out singles and scored on George Springer’s double off the left-field fence.

Springer enjoyed a sound game, going 2-for-4 with a single and double for two RBI, scoring a run, and making a dandy diving catch on Ramon Urias’s sinking fly ball in the fourth inning.

Baltimore starter Kyle Bradish (3-7) settled down after his rough start. He retired nine in a row until a fifth-inning, one-out throwing error from Urias that ignited a Blue Jays rally.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who extended his hit streak to 11 games with a first-inning infield hit that dribbled down the third-base line, reached base on the Urias error.

Bradish’s final batter, Chapman, walked, as did Teoscar Hernandez, to load the bases when Baltimore reliever Jake Reed took over. This set the table for Tapia’s bases-clearing double.

Bradish lasted 4 2/3 innings, yielding six hits for three unearned runs, a walk and three strikeouts.

Toronto starter Jose Berrios (11-5) went six innings, striking out three, walking two and giving up seven hits before 44,448 fans at Rogers Centre.

He was tagged for a pair of runs in the third inning. A lead-off double from Cedric Mullins and a one-out double from Anthony Santander put Orioles on first and second.

Baltimore shortstop Gunnar Henderson drove in his teammates with a single to left to close the Blue Jays’ advantage to 3-2.

Henderson also doubled with one out in the eighth inning and scored on Terrin Vavra’s single off Toronto reliever Yimi Garcia.

Blue Jays stopper Jordan Romano closed the deal in the ninth inning for his 34th save.

Interim Toronto manager John Schneider reported there is a chance Alejandro Kirk (hip) could return after a four-game absence to catch Alek Manoah on Sunday. Kirk was behind the plate for all Manoah’s 28 starts this season.

Outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (hamstring strain) is eligible to come off the 10-game disabled list on Sunday.

Manoah (14-7) will face Orioles righty Dean Kremer (7-5) in the series finale on Sunday. Manoah is 2-1 with a no-decision in four starts with eight earned runs in 24 2/3 innings against Baltimore in 2022.