Orioles 4, Blue Jays 2: Gibson's Nightcap, Then a Sweep

A spot start, 6 2/3 zeroes, and one more day alive

September 23, 2026 - Baltimore - Trey Gibson is Baltimore's No. 17 prospect. He got a first pitch at 6:35 p.m. in a nightcap the Orioles had to have, and he threw a career-high 6 2/3 scoreless innings. Three hits. Seven strikeouts. Two walks. Ninety-two pitches. The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and swept a split doubleheader that finished 4-2, 4-2.

Partly cloudy. 65 degrees. Wind 15 mph in from center. Attendance 19,824. The nightcap lasted 2 hours, 22 minutes. Baltimore had four hits and one error. Toronto had six hits and none. Four hits were enough because Christian Encarnacion-Strand drove in three of the runs and Gibson never let the Blue Jays put a number on the board until Félix Bautista's ninth.

Pete Alonso had already been named the unanimous Most Valuable Oriole that morning. He hit his 41st in the opener. In the nightcap he went 0-for-3, reached after a hit-by-pitch, and scored the first run. The Polar Bear did not need another homer for the sweep to count.

"Having to watch other games and having your destiny in other peoples' hands, that sucks," Alonso said. "Obviously, we're still not eliminated, which is great. For us to come out, sweep the doubleheader, that's big time."

Three in the first, then CES again

CJ Van Eyk (0-2) did not get through the first clean. Alonso was on. Coby Mayo doubled. Encarnacion-Strand lined a two-run single to left. 2-0. Colton Cowser doubled, a fly that shortstop Ernie Clement and left fielder Davis Schneider both got a piece of. Encarnacion-Strand scored. 3-0.

Van Eyk lasted five: four hits, four earned, no walks, two strikeouts, 84 pitches. The fourth was the last run he allowed. Encarnacion-Strand hit his 11th, a fly to left. 4-0. He finished 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBI. Cowser went 1-for-3 with the double and an RBI. Mayo went 1-for-3 with the double. Gunnar Henderson walked. Dylan Beavers, Jeremiah Jackson, Christian Franklin, and Yohel Pozo went hitless.

Gibson (2-3) chewed through Toronto. Nathan Lukes had two of the six Blue Jays hits. Alejandro Kirk singled. Sean Keys singled and later scored. Schneider was the only Toronto bat that hurt him late. Gibson left with two on in the seventh. Yennier Cano inherited them and struck out a hitter for his 14th hold.

Josh Walker threw a scoreless eighth. Bautista, asked to finish a 4-0 game, gave up Schneider's fifth homer in the ninth, a two-run fly to left that scored Keys. 4-2. That was the last noise Toronto made.

The 4-2 they already won that afternoon

The opener had the same final and a different author. Alonso's two-run homer off Max Scherzer (3-9) in the fifth was his first off his old Mets teammate. Chris Bassitt (9-5) threw five-plus: seven hits, two earned, one walk, two strikeouts, 90 pitches. Andrew Kittredge threw the ninth for his 11th save. Attendance for the 1:37 p.m. start was 10,562.

Scherzer lasted five: four hits, four earned, three walks, seven strikeouts, 93 pitches. Toronto stacked 10 hits and scored two. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled. Andrés Giménez doubled twice. The Blue Jays left eight on.

Two 4-2s. One morning award. One nightcap from a prospect who had not thrown 6 2/3 scoreless in the majors before. Baltimore is 78-81. Toronto is 77-82. The Orioles sit 3 1/2 games behind the White Sox for the third American League Wild Card and also trail Texas. They have to sweep three at Yankee Stadium, need Chicago to finish 0-4, and still have to dodge a Texas tiebreaker.

That is a lot of other people's baseball. Wednesday was the part they could control. They swept it.

Four hits, and a pitching line that carried the night

Baltimore's nightcap offense was four hits. Encarnacion-Strand had two of them. Gibson's line is why the Orioles could live with that. Seven punchouts. No earned runs. A win that did not need Alonso to go deep again.

Schneider's ninth made the box score look closer than the first eight innings. He went 1-for-2 with two walks, a homer, and two RBI. Kazuma Okamoto went 0-for-4. Josh Smith went 0-for-4. Charles McAdoo walked. Myles Straw singled. The Blue Jays did not score until the closer was on the mound, and they did not tie it.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Baltimore at 18 team fantasy points for the doubleheader, second on the slate. Gibson had 24.66 fantasy points, the highest individual total of the night. Encarnacion-Strand had 10 hitting FP. Schneider had 9 in a loss.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com Game 1 box, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*