Before the Orioles played at Sahlen Field on Friday, the lone baseball-related memory that manager Brandon Hyde associated with Buffalo, N.Y., was that he didn't get to play there during his minor- league career because he was demoted ahead of a road trip featuring a stop in the city.
Hyde's club couldn't free him of that negative association Friday, losing to the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4, in 10 innings as Randal Grichuk continued to terrorized Baltimore pitching with a two-run, walk-off home run against Cole Sulser with two outs.
The loss opened a four-game series being played in Buffalo, home of the Blue Jays' Triple-A affiliate, because Canada prevented Toronto's Rogers Centre from hosting games in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. It handed the Orioles (14-17) their ninth loss in their past 11 games. Four of those defeats have come against the Blue Jays, who they trail by 1 { games for the final American League playoff spot.
Friday's loss also came in the first regular-season game in Orioles history played outside of a major league park. They will hope the second attempt goes their way.
Baltimore took the lead in the top of the 10th when Hanser Alberto's fourth hit scored Rio Ruiz, who began the inning automatically at second base per the 2020 season's extra-inning rules. Sulser retired the first two batters he faced in the bottom half to keep Reese McGuire at second, but Grichuk hit a 1-0 slider out to center to end the game.
In the eighth, Renato Nunez tied the game with his second home run in three games to erase a deficit created when left-hander Tanner Scott threw a wild pitch with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at third with two outs in the sixth. With Guerrero having reached with a double on Dillon Tate's first pitch of the inning, Scott allowed an inherited runner to score for the third straight outing after stranding his first 14 in a breakout 2020.
The game was scoreless until Guerrero and Teoscar Hernandez homered on consecutive pitches from Orioles left-hander John Means in the fourth. Means, an All-Star in 2019, completed the frame to finish with a season-high 74 pitches as he builds up after some arm soreness during training camp and going on bereavement leave for the death of his father.
The Orioles evened the game in the top of the sixth when the Blue Jays' infield misplayed Ryan Mountcastle's bases-loaded grounder for a two-run single.
Much like he did in pitching six innings of one-run ball against them last week, Toronto left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu stymied the Orioles through five innings. He allowed a single each frame, but those runners never reached second base and were twice erased on double plays.
But in the sixth, Jose Iglesias, in his first game off the injured list, followed Hanser Alberto's leadoff single with one of his own, advancing to second as Alberto went to third and using a swim move to avoid a tag at the bag.
After Nunez walked to load the bases with two outs, Mountcastle hit a ground ball to third, but Guerrero couldn't corral Travis Shaw's low throw, allowing Alberto and Iglesias to score the tying runs. The play was initially ruled an error on Shaw but was later changed to a two-run single, giving Mountcastle his first career multi-RBI game.
He reached on what remained an error to lead off a tied ninth but was caught stealing on a potential missed hit-and-run sign from Pat Valaika, who singled on the next pitch and was then caught stealing himself.
