<p>The Blue Jays had a pretty good weekend in Baltimore, earning a split over the four-game series despite a couple of heartbreaking walk-off losses, and did their part to help slow down the Trash Birds and their pursuit of another Wild Card game loss.</p>
<p></p>
<h1>What happened?</h1>
<p>On <strong>Thursday</strong>, the lineups battled back and forth in a slugfest as Marco Estrada and Jeremy Hellickson both got smacked around a little bit. The Jays had a massive eight-run rally in the middle innings led by Kendrys Morales, who exploded for three homers and seven RBIs. For a moment, it felt like 2015. <strong>11-8 Blue Jays. </strong></p>
<p>On <strong>Friday</strong>, Joe Biagini pitched a gem, reminding everyone exactly why the organization is interested in making him a starter. Unfortunately, the bats got literally nothing going, and the O&#8217;s finally earned a walk-off win in the bottom of the 13th inning. <strong>1-0 Orioles. </strong></p>
<p>On <strong>Saturday</strong>, the power bats blew up again, as homers from Josh Donaldson, Kevin Pillar, and Darwin Barney led the Jays to a gritty win. Marcus Stroman left the game early after being drilled by a Mark Trumbo comebacker, but Matt Dermody and Luis Santos closed the door. <strong>7-2 Blue Jays. </strong></p>
<p>On <strong>Sunday</strong>, the Jays let the Orioles back into the game a couple of times, including in a ninth inning blown save from Roberto Osuna, before Trumbo hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th inning. <strong>5-4 Orioles. </strong></p>
<h1>Things that were good</h1>
<ul>
<li>The new kids, Carlos Ramirez, Richard Urena, and Teoscar Hernandez, all had a solid showing in their Blue Jays debuts this weekend. Urena hit a double in his first big league plate appearance and picked up three walks in his first start on Sunday. Hernandez made an excellent game-saving grab in Friday&#8217;s game and picked up a couple hits over the weekend. Ramirez was the start of the trio, though, as he pitched four scoreless innings across two excellent appearances, looking calm like a grizzled veteran.</li>
<li>Joe Biagini had likely the best start of his big league career on Friday. He went seven innings without allowing a run, scattering five hits and one walk while striking out 10. That&#8217;s a great sign considering Biagini looked completely out of sorts in last weekend&#8217;s loss to Minnesota. It&#8217;s an impressive thing to shut down the Trash Birds and their frustratingly-good lineup, so hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Biagini, who&#8217;s auditioning for a spot in next year&#8217;s rotation.</li>
<li>Kendrys Morales had probably his best game as a Blue Jay on Thursday, joining Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Donaldson, and Michael Saunders as recent Jays to club three dingers in a game. Speaking of Saunders, it was nice to see him come up and smack an RBI single in Sunday&#8217;s game. Hopefully he can have a good September and catch on somewhere next season.</li>
<li>Josh Donaldson continued to beat the shit out of the baseball this weekend, launching three-run bombs on Saturday and Sunday. He also made a few nice defensive plays throughout the series. Sign him to an extension.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" align="center" data-width="550" data-lang="en" data-dnt="true" data-partner="jetpack"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Teoscar Hernandez with a game-saving catch and Danny Barnes loves it. <a href="https://t.co/DVnMRDeT06">pic.twitter.com/DVnMRDeT06</a></p>&mdash; Ian Hunter (@BlueJayHunter) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueJayHunter/status/903806878685253632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
<h1>Things that weren&#8217;t good</h1>
<ul>
<li>The Jays suffered a couple of heartbreaking losses, both because the bats couldn&#8217;t come through late in the game. At this point, I&#8217;m pretty numb to it, but still, there was a legitimate chance they could have swept the Trash Birds at Camden, which would have completely guttered the Orioles&#8217; season. Oh well.</li>
<li>Ryan Tepera and Danny Barnes both had a sort of rough weekend. But can you really blame them? It seems the two righties have pitched in every single game this season. By this point, they&#8217;re both completely gassed.</li>
<li>Marcus Stroman got drilled by a comebacker in Saturday&#8217;s game, which was pretty terrifying. He was pulled from the start, but the x-rays came back negative and he&#8217;s only day-to-day. Still, it was stressful to watch considering how 2017 has gone.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" align="center" data-width="550" data-lang="en" data-dnt="true" data-partner="jetpack"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Stroman just got nailed with a 107.5 MPH Mark Trumbo screamer <a href="https://t.co/I4kcMlIkto">pic.twitter.com/I4kcMlIkto</a></p>&mdash; Zombie-P Toronto (@BProToronto) <a href="https://twitter.com/BProToronto/status/904128211801563136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
<h1>Up next&#8230;</h1>
<p>The Jays will head to Fenway looking to redeem themselves after the pounding they took at home from the Red Sox last week. More September call-ups will join the roster on Monday, so we might be seeing a few more interesting names like Anthony Alford and Ryan Borucki as the season winds down.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-39638" src="https://bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2017/10/2li_enfr_wordmark_c.png" alt="" width="1424" height="145" /></p>

The Blue Jays had a pretty good weekend in Baltimore, earning a split over the four-game series despite a couple of heartbreaking walk-off losses, and did their part to help slow down the Trash Birds and their pursuit of another Wild Card game loss.


<h1>What happened?</h1>
On <strong>Thursday</strong>, the lineups battled back and forth in a slugfest as Marco Estrada and Jeremy Hellickson both got smacked around a little bit. The Jays had a massive eight-run rally in the middle innings led by Kendrys Morales, who exploded for three homers and seven RBIs. For a moment, it felt like 2015. <strong>11-8 Blue Jays. </strong>

On <strong>Friday</strong>, Joe Biagini pitched a gem, reminding everyone exactly why the organization is interested in making him a starter. Unfortunately, the bats got literally nothing going, and the O's finally earned a walk-off win in the bottom of the 13th inning. <strong>1-0 Orioles. </strong>

On <strong>Saturday</strong>, the power bats blew up again, as homers from Josh Donaldson, Kevin Pillar, and Darwin Barney led the Jays to a gritty win. Marcus Stroman left the game early after being drilled by a Mark Trumbo comebacker, but Matt Dermody and Luis Santos closed the door. <strong>7-2 Blue Jays. </strong>

On <strong>Sunday</strong>, the Jays let the Orioles back into the game a couple of times, including in a ninth inning blown save from Roberto Osuna, before Trumbo hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th inning. <strong>5-4 Orioles. </strong>
<h1>Things that were good</h1>
<ul>
 	<li>The new kids, Carlos Ramirez, Richard Urena, and Teoscar Hernandez, all had a solid showing in their Blue Jays debuts this weekend. Urena hit a double in his first big league plate appearance and picked up three walks in his first start on Sunday. Hernandez made an excellent game-saving grab in Friday's game and picked up a couple hits over the weekend. Ramirez was the start of the trio, though, as he pitched four scoreless innings across two excellent appearances, looking calm like a grizzled veteran.</li>
 	<li>Joe Biagini had likely the best start of his big league career on Friday. He went seven innings without allowing a run, scattering five hits and one walk while striking out 10. That's a great sign considering Biagini looked completely out of sorts in last weekend's loss to Minnesota. It's an impressive thing to shut down the Trash Birds and their frustratingly-good lineup, so hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Biagini, who's auditioning for a spot in next year's rotation.</li>
 	<li>Kendrys Morales had probably his best game as a Blue Jay on Thursday, joining Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Donaldson, and Michael Saunders as recent Jays to club three dingers in a game. Speaking of Saunders, it was nice to see him come up and smack an RBI single in Sunday's game. Hopefully he can have a good September and catch on somewhere next season.</li>
 	<li>Josh Donaldson continued to beat the shit out of the baseball this weekend, launching three-run bombs on Saturday and Sunday. He also made a few nice defensive plays throughout the series. Sign him to an extension.</li>
</ul>
[tweet https://twitter.com/BlueJayHunter/status/903806878685253632 hide_thread='true' align='center']
<h1>Things that weren't good</h1>
<ul>
 	<li>The Jays suffered a couple of heartbreaking losses, both because the bats couldn't come through late in the game. At this point, I'm pretty numb to it, but still, there was a legitimate chance they could have swept the Trash Birds at Camden, which would have completely guttered the Orioles' season. Oh well.</li>
 	<li>Ryan Tepera and Danny Barnes both had a sort of rough weekend. But can you really blame them? It seems the two righties have pitched in every single game this season. By this point, they're both completely gassed.</li>
 	<li>Marcus Stroman got drilled by a comebacker in Saturday's game, which was pretty terrifying. He was pulled from the start, but the x-rays came back negative and he's only day-to-day. Still, it was stressful to watch considering how 2017 has gone.</li>
</ul>
[tweet https://twitter.com/BProToronto/status/904128211801563136 hide_thread='true' align='center']
<h1>Up next...</h1>
The Jays will head to Fenway looking to redeem themselves after the pounding they took at home from the Red Sox last week. More September call-ups will join the roster on Monday, so we might be seeing a few more interesting names like Anthony Alford and Ryan Borucki as the season winds down.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-39638" src="https://bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2017/10/2li_enfr_wordmark_c.png" alt="" width="1424" height="145" />

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