Jose Berrios took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, George Springer homered and the visiting Toronto Blue Jays defeated Baltimore 3-1 Wednesday night to end the Orioles’ five-game winning streak.
Berrios permitted only two runners to reach through six innings — on a walk and a hit batter — before Adley Rutschman led off the seventh with a soft liner that dropped well in front of center fielder Kevin Kiermaier.
That ended his bid to become only the second Blue Jay to throw a no-hitter, a feat performed by Dave Stieb on Sept. 2, 1990.
“That’s baseball,” Berrios said.
Baltimore added a pair of singles off Berrios in the eighth before Tim Mayza retired Gunnar Henderson on a grounder to keep the score 3-0.
Berrios (7-4) went 7 2/3 innings, allowing three hits, striking out five and walking one. The 29-year-old righty improved to 10-0 lifetime versus the Orioles.
“Basically he had everything working against obviously a really good lineup,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “He was phenomenal tonight.”
Jordan Romano gave up three consecutive two-out singles in ninth, the last an RBI hit by Aaron Hicks, before striking out Adam Frazier to earn his 19th save.
Berrios outpitched Orioles starter Kyle Bradish (2-3), who had a shutout going until Springer hit a solo shot in the sixth.
“Old-fashioned pitcher’s duel,” Schneider said.
Toronto padded the lead against the Baltimore bullpen in the eighth with RBI doubles from Whit Merrifield and Bo Bichette.
Berrios retired the first 13 batters he faced before issuing a walk to Austin Hays in the fifth. In the sixth, Berrios struck out the side around hitting Ramon Urias with a pitch.
At that point, a no-hitter seemed like a possibility.
“You look at it in the sixth, he’s making good plays and making good pitches, executing really really well against a good lineup, you see the results and the pitch count where it was, you kind of say, ‘Let me stand where I’ve been standing the first five or six innings,”‘ Schneider said.
Everyone in the Toronto dugout knew Berrios needed nine outs to complete the no-hitter, and no one said a thing.
“We don’t talk about it at all,” said Berrios, who needed no reminder about what was going on.
“I know in the sixth I have a no-hitter and my pitch count was low, so I don’t think they’re going to take me out,” he said.
Toronto improved to 1-4 versus the Orioles this season.
Baltimore’s five-game winning streak included an 11-6 rout of the Blue Jays on Tuesday night. The Orioles had a season-high 17 hits in that game.
In this one, they got all six of their hits in the final three innings.
“We had a tough time with Berrios,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “I thought he was absolutely excellent. We were making quick outs and he was filling up the strike zone with all his pitches and moving the ball in and out. Fastball had a ton of life. He was tough to hit.”
Blue Jays left hander Yusei Kikuchi (6-2, 4.34 ERA) starts in the series finale Thursday. Kikuchi took the loss in a May 19 matchup against Baltimore and owns a lifetime 6.29 ERA in nine career games versus the Orioles.
Orioles right hander Tyler Wells (5-2, 3.24) seeks to gain his third straight start after beating San Francisco and Kansas City.
