TORONTO _ With their season on the line, the Orioles put away their power bats and instead opted for small-ball as the path to their 4-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night at Rogers Centre.
The Orioles lead the majors with 247 home runs this season, and on nights when they haven't been able to hit the ball out, their offense has had few other answers.
But they offered on a much different look Thursday as they won for the second straight night and moved into a tie with the Blue Jays for the first American League wild-card spot.
Resorting to small ball was a break from the norm for the Orioles, and even though their offense has been short on production lately, Thursday's output was more than enough for right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, who allowed just one hit in 6 2/3 scoreless innings.
The Orioles (87-72) kept the ball in play against Toronto right-hander Marcus Stroman and delivered hits with runners on base _ the type that had been lacking of late. Thursday marked just the second time in 12 games that they've scored more than three runs.
After J.J. Hardy opened the third inning with a double, Adam Jones moved him to third with a groundout to the right side, and Hardy scored the game's first run two batters later on Manny Machado's sacrifice fly to deep center field.
The Orioles rallied again in the fourth, getting back-to-back one-out single from Chris Davis and Jonathan Schoop to put runners at the corners. Right fielder Michael Bourn hit a grounder to third that could have been an inning-ending double play, but Josh Donaldson's throw drew second baseman Devon Travis off the bag; the Blue Jays were lucky to get the force out at second.
Hyun Soo Kim drove in Bourn _ who drew a leadoff walk and stole second _ on a two-out single to right field to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead.
Mark Trumbo sped out of the batter's box in the eighth, stretching a single into a leadoff double, and then came in to score on Matt Wieters' RBI single.
