Canadian Brett Lawrie scored three runs and Ricky Romero pitched six effective innings as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Baltimore Orioles 8-6 on Tuesday night.
Lawrie also drove in three runs and had three of Toronto's 10 hits as the Blue Jays (26-24) moved three games behind the Orioles (29-21) in the American League East standings. Baltimore started the night tied with Tampa for first place in the division.
Romero (6-1), who has struggled with his control of late, allowed four earned runs and six hits. He had just one walk and recorded seven strikeouts.
Staked to an early 1-0 lead on an Adam Jones homer, Baltimore starter Jake Arrieta (2-6) breezed through the first two innings before being touched up for two runs in the third.
Lawrie and David Cooper hit back-to-back singles and Rajai Davis advanced the runners with a well-placed bunt between the third-base line and pitcher's mound.
Arrieta's throw to first was wide, allowing Lawrie to score. Cooper came across when Yunel Escobar hit a slow grounder to third base.
An inning later, Colby Rasmus started the Toronto rally with a ground-rule double. J.P. Arencibia walked and Lawrie drove both runners in with a gapper to right-centre field.
The Blue Jays took advantage of back-to-back errors in the frame. Jones dropped a broken-bat flare from Cooper in shallow centre field and left-fielder Wilson Betemit botched a hard-hit single by Davis that rolled all the way to the wall.
Lawrie, from Langley, B.C., scored on the second error. Arrieta escaped further damage by striking out Kelly Johnson and getting Escobar to line out.
Toronto piled on with three more runs in the fifth inning. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion opened with walks before Rasmus and Arencibia struck out.
Lawrie lashed a single to right that drove in Bautista. Cooper cashed in Encarnacion with a single and Davis brought Lawrie across with yet another RBI single.
The Orioles cut into Toronto's lead with three runs in the sixth inning. Jones scored when Mark Reynolds hit an infield grounder and Chris Davis added a two-run homer, his ninth blast of the season.
Reliever Jason Frasor entered the game in the seventh inning. The Orioles loaded the bases but Frasor got out of the jam when Ronny Paulino hit a weak grounder to second base.
Baltimore put two runners in scoring position in the eighth before reliever Francisco Cordero got Robert Andino on a strikeout.
In the ninth, Casey Janssen gave up a two-run homer to Jones with one out. Paulino followed with a line drive that Rasmus misjudged in centre field.
Janssen walked Reynolds and Lawrie made a nice diving catch on a Davis popup in foul territory for the second out. Betemit grounded into a force play to end it.
The Orioles, who have lost four in a row, had 12 hits and three errors. Toronto had one error in the game, which took three hours 11 minutes to play.
Announced attendance was 17,352 on a comfortable, breezy evening at Rogers Centre.
