Baltimore Orioles win first AL East division title since 1997
By Jake Misener
With an 8-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in front of a sea of fans clad in black and orange at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Baltimore Orioles ended a 17-year drought, capturing the first American League East division crown since 1997, and punching a ticket to the postseason.
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With much of the lineup’s usual pop sidelined – Matt Wieters and Manny Machado by injury, slugging first baseman Chris Davis by 25-game suspension – the unlikely band of players stepped up once again, propelling Baltimore to its 91st win of the season. One of those unlikely stars, Alejandro De Aza, who was acquired via a mid-August trade with the Chicago White Sox, broke the game wide open in the bottom of the seventh with a bases-clearing triple that pushed the Baltimore lead to 7-2.
That was the Orioles’ left fielder’s only hit of the night, but it came in a big spot. Only third baseman Jimmy Paredes recorded more than one base hit on the night, going 2-for-3 with a pair of runs and a solo home run in bottom of the second that gave Baltimore (91-60) a 4-2 advantage early on. From the second inning on, Orioles starter Ubaldo Jimenez – who signed a four-year, $50 million deal in the offseason – settled down, retiring the final ten batters he faced.
The right-hander allowed two early earned runs on a pair of hits and four walks, but struck out six in five innings of work. From that point on, four Orioles relievers closed the door, allowing just two hits in the final four innings – also failing to walk a batter.
The big blow for Toronto (77-73) came early on when Steve Pearce, filling in for Davis at first, smashed a three-run blast that put the Orioles up 3-1 – a lead the club would not relinquish – much to the delight of the 35,297 packed into the ballpark to see a long-awaited division title.