O'Neill homers again as Orioles rout Blue Jays in doubleheader opener

BALTIMORE (AP) — Tyler O'Neill homered for a fourth straight game, and the Baltimore Orioles tied a major league record with five sacrifice flies on Tuesday in a 16-4 rout of the Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of a doubleheader.

Ramón Urías homered twice, and Gunnar Henderson also went deep for the last-place Orioles, who have outscored the AL East leaders 27-8 in the first two games of this series.

Charlie Morton (7-8) allowed three runs in six innings for the Orioles, yielding a two-run homer by Addison Barger in the fourth.

Baltimore loaded the bases with nobody out in the first and third against Blue Jays starter Easton Lucas (3-3). O'Neill and Cedric Mullins hit sacrifice flies in the first, and Urías and Mullins did so in the third.

Toronto fought back to within a run before the Orioles scored six in the sixth. Henderson hit an RBI single, and O'Neill followed with a three-run shot. Then Urías hit a drive to center that made it 9-3.

Henderson added a three-run shot and Urías hit another solo homer in the seventh.

Joey Loperfido hit a solo homer for Toronto in the eighth.

Ali Sánchez, who caught the first seven innings, pitched the eighth for the Blue Jays. He struck out fellow catcher Alex Jackson swinging on a looping pitch clocked at 35 mph. Jackson Holliday hit Baltimore's fifth sacrifice fly later that inning.

Key moment

With another game still to come, the Blue Jays left reliever Lazaro Estrada in to allow six runs in 3 1/3 innings. He hit two of the first three Baltimore batters in the sixth to start that big rally.

Key stat

The sacrifice fly became official in 1954, and the Orioles are the fourth team to hit five in a game since then. The most recent had been Seattle in 2008.

Up next

Brandon Young (0-5) starts for Baltimore against Eric Lauer (6-2) in Tuesday’s nightcap.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb