Leftovers for breakfast

Dillon Tate wasn’t expecting to make his earliest appearance in a game in more than a year last night. The bullpen phone rang with no outs in the fourth inning and two runners on base, and he grabbed his glove and a ball.

This wasn’t playoff baseball, but it sure felt and sounded like it.

“It’s just part of the job to be ready when your name is called,” said Tate, who earned the win after allowing one run in 1 2/3 innings in the Orioles’ 9-6 victory over the Blue Jays at Camden Yards.

Manager Brandon Hyde needed to keep the deficit at three runs and turned to one of his high-leverage relievers. Tate inherited runners on the corners, didn’t let the Blue Jays expand their lead by performing a nifty escape act, and watched the Orioles score five times in the bottom half.

The bullpen covered the last six innings and the Orioles moved within 3 1/2 games of the last wild card spot.

“All in all, it was a huge team win,” Tate said. "We had to scrap on offense and defense. In all, the team did an excellent job today.”

A must win for the Orioles?

“I think they all feel like that right now,” Tate said, “and we’re just doing whatever we can to come out on top each day that we’re here at The Yard.

“They all feel intense right now, to be honest with you, and especially with a club like the Blue Jays that’s playing solid baseball. It’s imperative that we were able to handle business.”

Kyle Bradish allowed three runs and six hits in three-plus innings.

“Felt like I was throwing real good,” he said. “Velo was up, slider was very good. It’s a good team."

* The rivalry between these teams boiled over again when the dugouts and bullpens emptied after Bryan Baker struck out Matt Chapman to end the top of the seventh and gestured toward the Jays’ dugout – specifically Teoscar Hernández, who had to be restrained by Jorge Mateo.

Manager John Schneider was ejected in the bottom of the seventh after plate umpire Jeff Nelson warned both benches.

“I didn’t understand the warnings,” Schneider said. “I didn’t understand why Bryan Baker was looking into our dugout after giving up a run on back-to-back days. I thought a couple pitches were close that Jeff didn’t agree with. I asked, ‘Was that down?’ and he threw me out, so I wasn’t quite sure what prompted that.

 “I don’t think it was a Teo thing. I think it was Baker looking into our dugout like he has every time he’s pitched against us since he wasn’t part of our team.”

These teams have seven games remaining. Should be fun.

* Austin Voth didn’t know that he owned an Orioles record until informed yesterday at his locker, pausing as he leaned forward to put on his shoes.

The news shocked and amused him, and he didn’t even get the details. He just heard the word “record” and repeated it back to me in the form of a question.

He can be forgiven for not tracking one of the more obscure streaks.

Voth is the first Oriole to earn a team win in his first seven home starts with the club. He hasn’t gotten every decision – he only went 3 1/3 innings, for example, in his most recent outing against the Athletics – but the Orioles have been victorious.

“Really?” he asked.

“I’m just glad that we won the game the other day. The way that game was going and everything, I was just happy that we were able to score more runs and our bullpen came up clutch for us and put up zeros.”

Voth can extend his streak to eight in a row in Friday night’s game against the Red Sox at Camden Yards.

“I feel like going into every start, you want to be able to just keep your team in it, and I feel like I’ve done that in my last, I don’t know how many starts,” he said. “I’ve had maybe one start in Seattle, and then my last start was maybe the other start where I had some hiccups and had to rely on the bullpen to kind of pick me up. But thinks are going well right now.”

* As the media scrum broke up yesterday at reliever Jake Reed’s locker, I hung back to ask something that absolutely no one else cared about.

Who would come up first in a Google search of his name, the former NFL receiver or himself?

(I’m a big Vikings fan, which is why the idea popped into my head.)

Reed didn’t hesitate.

“The receiver, the receiver.”

Well, not on my laptop. I had a full screen of information about the new Orioles reliever.

Next was a professional drummer based in Los Angeles. And then, finally, the receiver who spent 12 seasons in the NFL, caught 85 passes in 1994 and finished with 450 receptions and 36 touchdowns.

Reed was a deep threat. The pitcher has made only four starts among 282 professional games, so the Orioles won’t ask him to get deep into games.

* The former Mets and Dodgers reliever is married to the former Olympian Janie Takeda, an outfielder who won a silver medal with Team USA’s softball team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo that were delayed until 2021 due to the pandemic.

Reed made his major league debut with the Dodgers on July 6, 2021 in Miami, one day after Janie arrived in Japan.

“Can someone please give him a big hug for me???” she tweeted.

The couple began dating in 2011 during their freshman year at the University of Oregon. They married six years later.

Janie, who majored in journalism, owns the school’s career records for hits (309), doubles (42), runs scored (204) and stolen bases (102).