By Canadian Press

Toronto’s Alford hits home run to end Jays-Orioles 15-inning marathon 11-10

Sep 23, 2019 | 10:50 PM

TORONTO — Anthony Alford hit a solo home run in the 15th inning to hand the Toronto Blue Jays an 11-10 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Monday.

There were few fans left in attendance at Rogers Centre as the game stretched to five hours 21 minutes, their longest game of the season by nearly an hour.

Randal Grichuk opened the scoring in the first inning for Toronto (64-93) with a three-run homer in the first inning. Brandon Drury, Jonathan Davis, and Cavan Biggio also had solo shots.

Austin Hays led Baltimore (51-106) with a three-run home run and a solo homer before hitting an RBI single in the eighth. Rio Ruiz also had home run, a two-run blast in the fifth, while Jonathan Villar had a solo bomb and an RBI single.

The Blue Jays forced extra innings twice.

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Trailing 9-7 in the bottom of the ninth, Biggio’s sacrifice fly drove in Jonathan Davis from third. Grichuk followed with a single that moved Alford — pinch running for Biggio — to third.

That brought Vladimir Guerrero Jr., to the plate. The rookie sensation singled up the middle, bouncing the ball between second and short to score Alford and tie it 9-9.

Chris Davis smashed a home run to deep right field in the 12th to give the Orioles a 10-9 lead, but Toronto loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning and Guerrero scored on a sacrifice fly from Jonathan Davis to tie it back up 10-10.

Both teams were forced to go deep into their bullpens with the score run so high and the game going so long.

Chandler Shepherd started for Baltimore, giving up six runs on six hits over three innings. Evan Phillips pitched two innings, before Miguel Castro, Paul Fry, Mychal Givens, Branden Kline, Shawn Armstrong, Dillon Tate, David Hess and Ryan Eades came out of the Orioles bullpen.

Fry allowed a run in his 1/3 of an inning and Armstrong gave up two runs in the ninth. Both were charged with blown saves and Eades took the loss.

Clay Buchholz also gave up six runs on six hits, but he lasted four innings and struck out four. Justin Shafer allowed one run in his inning of work, with Thomas Pannone, Sam Gaviglio, Derek Law, Ryan Tepera, Ken Giles, Jordan Romano, Buddy Boshers and Jason Adam coming on in relief.

Law gave up two runs in the eighth.

Grichuk crushed a pitch to the second deck at Rogers Centre for a three-run homer in the first inning. The line drive also scored Billy McKinney and Biggio.

Drury hit his solo shot to lead off the next inning, followed immediately by Jonathan Davis’s home run. It was the Blue Jays’ 14th back-to-back home runs of the season.

Hays replied with a three-run homer in the third. His two-out shot brought home Chance Sisco and Villar to cut Toronto’s lead to 5-3.

Toronto first baseman Rowdy Tellez’s single plated Grichuk from third base in the bottom of the third.

Villar led off the fifth with a solo bomb and then Hays hit his second homer of the game in the next at bat to cut Toronto’s lead to a run.

It was the first multi-homer game of Hays’s career and fifth back-to-back home runs for the Orioles this season.

Ruiz’s two-run homer drove in Anthony Santander for Baltimore’s first lead of the game, 7-6, and capped off a four-run inning.

Biggio tied it up for Toronto in the seventh, sailing a pitch from Fry over the right-field wall, to the delight of the 13,193 in attendance.

Davis tripled in the eighth and then scored on Villar’s single to give the Orioles an 8-7 lead. With two out and two on, Hays followed that with another base hit, allowing Sisco to score.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2019.

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John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press