Alejandro Kirk’s ninth-inning sacrifice fly lifts Blue Jays over Orioles 5-4
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TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s sacrifice fly in the ninth inning completed yet another Blue Jays comeback as Toronto stunned the Baltimore Orioles 5-4 on Saturday.
The Blue Jays scored three in the ninth inning for their 45th comeback win of the season, the most in Major League Baseball.
Addison Barger led off the fifth with a home run as Toronto (86-62) extended its win streak to three games. Kirk and fellow pinch-hitter Joey Loperfido had RBI singles in the eighth and ninth innings respectively to keep the Blue Jays within a run.
Light-hitting Andres Gimenez singled to score Ernie Clement and tie the game 4-4, setting up Kirk’s heroics.
Gunnar Henderson had an RBI double and then Tyler O’Neill, from Maple Ridge, B.C., hit into a fielder’s choice to score another run for Baltimore (69-79) in the first. Samuel Basallo doubled in another run in the eighth and Coby Mayo added a solo homer in the top of the ninth.
Orioles starter Tomoyuki Sugano allowed one run on four hits with four strikeouts over six innings. Relievers Rico Garcia, Kade Strowd, Keegan Akin and Yennier Cano followed hi to the mound.
Max Scherzer went five innings for the Blue Jays, giving up two runs on four hits, striking out five.
Tommy Nance, Eric Lauer, Seranthony Dominguez and Braydon Fisher followed Scherzer to the mound. Fisher picked up the win to improve to 6-0.
Takeaways
Orioles: Sugano has struggled this season, entering Saturday’s game with a 4.51 earned-run average. He was the model of efficiency against Toronto, however, only throwing 63 pitches. Baltimore manager Tony Mansolino made the surprising decision to pull him after six innings when the Orioles have a planned bullpen day on Sunday.
Blue Jays: A day after Toronto’s hitters looked sharp in a 6-1 victory, their offence sputtered. They had 12 hitters come to the plate for the first four innings, only getting traction in the fifth when Barger hit his 20th home run of the season.
Key moment
After Gimenez’s RBI single in the ninth, George Springer drew a walk to load the bases with one out. Kirk connected on a 95.5 m.p.h. sinker, the second pitch he saw from Cano, popping 321 feet out to centre field and giving Loperfido time to score from third.
Key stat
Scherzer, a surefire Hall of Famer, has allowed seven earned runs in the first inning of his last three starts for a 21.00 earned-run average.
Up next
Shane Bieber (2-1) get the start for Toronto in the series finale with Baltimore.
It’s expected the Orioles will have a bullpen day.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2025.
Note to readers:This is a corrected story. A previous version had the incorrect records for the Blue Jays and Orioles.