For the first time in 20 years, a Major League Baseball team came back from a seven-run deficit heading into the bottom of the first inning to win. That is what the Toronto Blue Jays were able to accomplish on Thursday, as they were trailing 7-0 to the Philadelphia Phillies heading into the bottom of the first innings, before coming all the way back to win by a score of 9-8.
Toronto got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run home run by Teoscar Hernandez. After not being able to score in the second, third, fourth, or fifth innings, the Blue Jays scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 9-7 lead.
Rowdy Tellez led off the sixth inning with a monster 429-foot solo home run to pull the Blue Jays within four runs at 7-3. Hernandez then singled and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of Montreal, Quebec walked. That led to a three-run home run by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to pull the Blue Jays within a single run at 7-6.
The Blue Jays then tied the game on two Phillies errors and a wild pitch. Then Tellez recorded his second hit of the sixth inning with a two-run RBI single which scored Cavan Biggio and Randal Grichuk to put Toronto up 9-7. Philadelphia pulled within a single run in the top of the seventh inning to make the score 9-8, but could not tie the game.
With the win, the Blue Jays have now won five straight games and improved to a record of 12 wins and 11 losses. They lead the Baltimore Orioles by a full game for the eighth and final playoff spot in the American League.
