Presented with a grand opportunity—the chance to grab home field advantage in this year’s wild card game from the Blue Jays with a series sweep—the Orioles were completely overmatched on Tuesday night in Toronto.
Josh Donaldson and Ezequiel Carrera went deep off Kevin Gausman early, and Aaron Sanchez struck out 10 batters over six innings of one-run ball en route to a 5–1 Blue Jays victory in the first of a three-game set. It opened up their lead in the AL wild-card race to two games, putting them in very favorable position over the Orioles, currently clinging to second, with just five games remaining.