Blue Jays Bow Out in Big Way, a 23-1 Loss

The Toronto Blue Jays’ flickering playoff hopes ended with a thud Thursday night at Camden Yards.

Delino DeShields homered and had a career-high five runs batted in as the Baltimore Orioles eliminated the Blue Jays from the postseason race with a record-setting 23-1 rout.

It was the largest victory margin in the major leagues since Aug. 25, 1979, when the Angels defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 24-2.

“We’re out of it now, but we have some things to look back on,” said Darrin Fletcher, who hit his 20th home run, giving the Blue Jays seven players with 20 or more homers and tying the major league mark set by the Orioles in 1996.

The 23 runs scored by Baltimore broke a team mark, set June 13, 1999, at Atlanta in a 22-1 victory. The Orioles raked four Blue Jays pitchers for 23 hits.

“Obviously, it’s unusual to score that many, no matter what offense you have or what team you’re playing,” said Baltimore’s Brady Anderson, who hit his 200th career home run and drove in four runs.

Brook Fordyce also homered for Baltimore.

The Orioles broke the game open with a 10-run fourth, tying a club record for runs in an inning. Thirteen men batted and all 10 runs, the most allowed by Toronto in an inning this year, were unearned against the team.

Minnesota 4, Cleveland 3--After Travis Fryman’s dramatic ninth-inning home run gave the Indians a reprieve, Corey Koskie drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th with a broken-bat, bases-loaded, fielder’s-choice grounder off Bob Wickman (1-3) at Cleveland.

Cleveland, which wasted a 2-0 lead and split the four-game series against the team with the AL’s worst record coming in, remained 1 1/2 games back in the wild-card race.

Boston 7, Chicago 6--Mike Lansing hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly as the Red Sox pushed across an unearned run in the eighth at Chicago.

The Red Sox (84-76) swept a three-game series against the only team guaranteed a spot in the AL playoffs.

Mike Sirotka, who has been the leading contender to open the playoffs for Chicago, left after three innings because of elbow discomfort.

Tampa Bay 11, New York 3--Bryan Rekar (7-10) pitched seven strong innings and Ozzie Timmons, Aubrey Huff and Bobby Smith homered off Roger Clemens (13-8) as the Devil Rays completed a three-game sweep at St. Petersburg, Fla.

The loss was the fourth consecutive and 12th in 15 games for the two-time defending World Series champions, outscored 24-5 in the series. New York’s lead was cut to 3 1/2 games over second-place Boston.

Kansas City 8, Detroit 5--Jermaine Dye reached base twice in a seven-run eighth as the Royals rallied against Todd Jones (0-4) at Kansas City, Mo.