August 25, 2012|By Dan Connolly | The Baltimore Sun
Wieters also did some damage with his bat — with a sacrifice fly in the third and a RBI single in the sixth. Every Oriole starter but Nate McLouth had a hit. Nick Markakis, Mark Reynolds and Manny Machado each had two while Hardy tied a career high with three runs scored.
The Blue Jays' lineup got a little lighter before the bottom of the third, when slugger Jose Bautista left the game with left wrist discomfort. Bautista had returned Friday after missing more than a month with the wrist injury.
The Orioles' first break came in the third when Yunel Escobar made a key error on a grounder that might have been an inning-ending double play. Instead, it led to two unearned runs against Brandon Morrow, who was making his first start back from a June oblique strain.
Morrow (7-5) gave up two earned runs in the fifth on an Adam Jones bloop single. It was set up by a Hardy double that nearly cleared the right field wall. The umpires reviewed the shot to make sure it was a fair ball and that it did not hit the bottom of the right-field foul pole.
The Orioles then busted the game open against the Jays' bullpen, and will now go for the three-game sweep Sunday afternoon.
“We definitely go into every single ballgame thinking we are going to win. And that's the attitude we need to have,” Hardy said. “I think if it's questionable and we are going out there trying to win or maybe we are going to win I don't think that's the right mindset to have. Everybody in this clubhouse goes out there expecting to win.”
dan.connolly@baltsun.com
