BALTIMORE – Who says situational hitting is dead?
The Baltimore Orioles tied a major league record with five sacrifice flies in their 16-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of Tuesday’s doubleheader.
Baltimore immediately loaded the bases with nobody out in the first, and Tyler O’Neill and Cedric Mullins hit sac flies that inning. Then Ramón Urías and Mullins added a couple of more in the third. Jackson Holliday’s flyout to left in the eighth tied the record and brought home Baltimore’s final run of the game.
“They came out, they competed. Those are the at-bats that winning teams have right there when you have that many,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “We’ve talked about it all year. That’s a runner in scoring position, those are really positive at-bats right there. So just proud of the guys. That’s winning baseball.”
The sacrifice fly became official in 1954, and the Orioles were the fourth team since then to produce five of them in a game. Seattle did it in 2008 and 1988, and Colorado pulled it off in 2006.
To hit that many sacrifice flies, you need men on third with fewer than two outs. The Orioles loaded the bases with nobody out in the first and third, had men on second and third with one out in the fifth, then had runners on first and third with one out in the sixth and eighth.
Baltimore had seven plate appearances with a man on third and fewer than two outs. The Orioles went 1 for 2 in those chances, since sacrifice flies don’t count as at-bats.
Baltimore also homered four times in the game.
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