Tuesday June 21 at the Blue Jays

Opponent: Toronto Blue Jays
Outcome: W
Score: 4-2
Streak: W1
Record: 19-50
Rank: 7th
GB: 23.5

The Orioles were taking on an old friend tonight.  Mike Flanagan had spent over a decade in the Orioles rotation before being traded to Toronto in late 1987 for Oswaldo Peraza and Jose Mesa.  His best season was 1979 when he went 23-9 and won the AL Cy Young Award while helping to pitch the Birds to the World Series.  Coincidentally Peraza was the O's starter this evening.

Things looked good for Toronto early.  Fred McGriff homered to lead off the bottom of the second to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead.  The Orioles didn't get on the board until the sixth inning when Cal Ripken doubled in Rene Gonzales to tie the game up.  But Tony Fernandez knocked in Jesse Barfield with an RBI double of his own in the bottom of the seventh to put Toronto on top again with a score of 2-1.

Flanagan ran into trouble in the top of the eighth however.  Rick Schu lead off the inning with a single and then both Gonzales and Pete Stanicek hit ground balls that resulted in the previous batter being forced at second.  But when Bill Ripken singled, Toronto manager Jimy Williams decided to go to his bullpen and bring in Jose Nunez to replace Flanagan on the mound.  Cal Ripken greeted the new pitcher with a bases clearing triple to put the Orioles up 3-2.  That would be the only hitter Nunez faced as Williams brought in David Wells then who got Eddie Murray to pop up to end the inning.  Wells would give up a run in the top of the ninth though when Ken Gerhart hit a solo home run to bring the score to 4-2.

Peraza ended up with the win and Flanagan got the loss so at least for one night that trade looked good.