Wade Miley punched a cooler in the dugout after the sixth inning as the frustrated Baltimore Orioles lost again.
Josh Donaldson hit his fourth homer in two days and Jose Bautista also went deep in support of Marco Estrada, leading the Toronto Blue Jays over the fading Orioles 5-1 on Monday night.
Toronto maintained a two-game lead over the Red Sox for the AL East lead, while Baltimore fell four games back.
Photo: AP
The Orioles have lost four of five and are clinging to the second wild card.
“We just got to play ball,” Miley said. “We’ve got plenty of games against Toronto. It’s in our own hands. We just got to play ball games.”
Miley (8-11) allowed three runs and five hits while tying a season high with nine strikeouts over seven innings. He has lost three of six starts since being acquired from Seattle on July 31.
“Wade was good,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “Mixed in a lot of different looks and gave us a good chance. A good seventh inning to get one more inning out of him.”
Miley retired the first 10 batters before allowing Donaldson’s 34th home run. Troy Tulowitzki gave the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead later that inning with an RBI single.
Bautista provided a two-run cushion when he led off the sixth with his 16th homer, and Miley took out his frustrations on the water cooler a few minutes later.
Estrada (8-6) allowed one run and four hits with four strikeouts over seven-plus innings. The Blue Jays have won three of his four starts against the Orioles this year.
J.J. Hardy provided Baltimore’s only run with his eighth homer in the third, but that was about all Baltimore could muster against Estrada.
“We’ve had trouble with him for a while,” Hardy said. “He locates his pitches, kind of right on the top. His fastball is sneaky. He can elevate it. He can pitch down with it, and his changeup is a really tough pitch.”
Donaldson hit a solo homer in the fourth to tie it 1-1. The reigning AL Most Valuable Player had three homers in a 9-6 win over Minnesota on Sunday.
“He’s such a good player,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “When he’s doing his thing, it makes such a big difference for this team. It really sets everything up.”
The Blue Jays added two more runs in the ninth on an RBI single by Justin Smoak and a fielder’s choice by Devon Travis off Tommy Hunter.
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