Blue Jays rally from 5-0 down to defeat Orioles, reach .500

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Looking back at the early stages of the Blue Jays’ roster composition, the last thing anyone could have foreseen was lack of depth to the club’s starting rotation.

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Too many arms for too few slots, it would be argued, an abundance of starters some felt that would lead to difficult decisions being made.

Little did anyone know the gravity of the Jays’ starting rotation, which continues to wait for the arrival of key incumbent pieces.

In the interim, bullpen days have become the norm, the latest arriving Friday night in Baltimore in the second game of a four-game series.

Braydon Fisher has served as the opener on three occasions this season.

Adam Macko was thrust into the role for the first time Friday.

In Sunday’s series finale, Spencer Miles has been pencilled in.

It’s far from ideal, needless to say, but the Jays’ hands are tied.

The fact the team entered Friday one game below .500 speaks to the lack of quality in the American League, which wasn’t good last season, either.

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Toronto entered the night having won seven of its past nine games, but four were produced by scoring exactly two runs, including the Jays’ 2-1 victory in the series opener against the Orioles on Thursday.

Macko would give the Jays 1.2 innings.

Enter Austin Voth, who walked four and gave up three home runs in 3.1 innings.

With the baseball calendar about to flip to June, a healthy starting rotation featuring five legitimate arms ranks atop the Jays’ wish list.

If the club’s offence catches fire, much like it did in the seventh and eighth innings Friday, the Jays might be able to walk that tightrope.

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It was Fisher tasked with saving the game, which once had the Jays trailing 5-0, when he started the ninth inning.

He quickly retired the first two batters he faced.

A fielding error by Ernie Clement at second base put the tying run on when the night should have been in the books.

Another grounder was hit to Clement, only this time he made the play to secure the Blue Jays’ wild 6-5 comeback win that seemed to come out of nowhere.

The following are three takeaways on a night the Jays climbed back to the .500 level (29-29) for the first time since they sported a 4-4 record on April 4, a night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards when seven of the Jays’ 10 hits went for extra bases.

HITS AND MISSES

The Jays have redefined offensive inefficiency more times this season than one cares to recount.

They were well on their way to another woeful game until the club’s bats came to life in the seventh inning when a pair of two-run homers drew the visitors to within one run.

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In the next inning, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. drove in two runs on a double to give the Jays the lead after they had trailed 5-0.

The first big blast came off the bat of Kazuma Okamoto, who crushed his club-leading 12th home run. The second came courtesy of rookie Charles McAdoo, who went the opposite way on a two-run dinger into right field, his first hit in the show.

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McADOO AND DON’TS

In his MLB debut, McAdoo started at second base and hit sixth in the order.

On the first ball hit his way, McAdoo turned a rather routine 4-3 double play to end the first inning.

Routine might be too simplistic a description knowing the kid had never appeared on this stage.

To his credit, the stage wasn’t too big, for the most part that is.

In his first at-bat, McAdoo showed his inexperience, beginning by chasing a ball before swinging through an elevated pitch that did catch the zone to end his four-pitch at-bat.

In his second at-bat, McAdoo popped out in foul territory to first baseman Pete Alonso.

For those hoops-centric fans, Charles McAdoo is a distant cousin of Bob McAdoo, the legendary Buffalo Braves scoring machine who was named NBA MVP in 1975.

ROGERS AND OUT

One day after the Jays summoned Tyler Rogers from the bullpen, Toronto faced another Rogers in Orioles starter Trevor Rogers.

Both are soft-tossers, but Trevor Rogers is more conventional in how he throws to the plate in stark contrast to Tyler Rogers’ extreme “submarine” throwing motion.

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Although the Jays were using a bullpen game, their top three relievers (Rogers, Jeff Hoffman and Louis Varland) were not available after pitching on Thursday.

Trevor Rogers hasn’t pitched well heading into the game, but it was hard to tell. He began with six shutout innings before allowing the four seventh-inning runs, which ended his night.

UP NEXT

An actual starter in RHP Trey Yesavage is scheduled to be on the mound Saturday for the Jays; for Yesavage, it marks his seventh start of the season, which began with the electric youngster on the IL (shoulder impingement); in 32.0 innings, Yesavage has given up 24 hits and zero home runs; in his past three starts, he has gone at least six innings, including 6.2 innings, a season high, in his most recent outing against Miami. The Orioles will counter with RHP Brandon Young (3-1, 3.37 ERA).

fzicarelli@postmedia.com

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