BALTIMORE — Ramon Urias hit a three-run homer in the first inning, and Anthony Santander, Ryan Mountcastle and Austin Hays also went deep to lift the Baltimore Orioles to a 7-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night.

The Orioles pulled within three of Toronto for the first wild card. This was the first of 15 meetings down the stretch between the Blue Jays and Orioles.

Baltimore starter Jordan Lyles (9-8) allowed a third-inning homer by Cavan Biggio, but the Orioles responded in their half of that inning with back-to-back solo shots by Santander and Mountcastle to make it 5-1.

Matt Chapman hit a solo homer for Toronto in the sixth, but Hays answered with one in the bottom half.

The Blue Jays scored twice in the eighth, but Felix Bautista came on and retired Whit Merrifield on a two-out grounder with two on. Mountcastle’s RBI single made it 7-4.

The first two Toronto batters of the ninth reached on an error and a single against Bautista. Then the big right-hander struck out Teoscar Hernandez and got Bo Bichette to bounce into a double play to secure his fifth save.

Yusei Kikuchi (4-6) allowed five runs and six hits in five-plus innings for the Blue Jays. Lyles yielded two runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled in the fifth to extend his hitting streak to 19 games, the longest in the AL this year.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

METS 5, REDS 1: Chris Bassitt pitched eight innings of one-run ball and Starling Marte hit a two-run homer in the first inning as New York won at home.

The Mets have won 6 of 7 and 13 of 15 to improve their lead in the NL East to seven games over Atlanta.

NOTES

PHILLIES: Bob Boone waved to the Phillies crowd that accentuated the “Booooo” in his name in honor of the Gold Glove-winning catcher that caught the last out of the 1980 World Series.

He was an All-Star, a defensive whiz in Philly, a revered member of that championship season who, along with late Tug McGraw – his arms stretched high to the sky, bounding on the turf – was swallowed up into a mass of burgundy pinstripes in an image that resonates here to this day.

This year’s Phillies are on a 10-1 winning streak, have an NL wild-card berth in sight and have the city again in a frenzy. And Boone, on Sunday, fumbled the endorsement of the Phillies as a contender as much as he did a Frank White pop foul in Game 6 of the 1980 playoffs.

“I’m a Yankees fan now, sorry. My son’s there,” Boone said of Aaron Boone, who has the Yankees at an American League-best 70-39. He added of the Phillies: “They ain’t beating the Yankees, I’ll tell you that.”

Aaron Nola and Rhys Hoskins; Kyle Schwarber and Alec Bohm; Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard – they all may disagree. Their team is looking to crack the postseason for the first time since 2011 and break the longest playoff drought in the National League.

If they can, they’ll have a shot at the franchise’s third World Series championship in their 139-year history, though this year’s Phillies aren’t quite the no-doubt-about-it contenders as the 1980 and 2008 teams that had MVPs and All-Stars like Pete Rose, Chase Utley, Steve Carlton, Cole Hamels, Mike Schmidt and Ryan Howard.

But with Hoskins, Schwarber and a stout front end of the rotation leading the way, anything less than a playoff berth would be considered a bust.

The Phillies open a three-game home series Tuesday against the Marlins. The Phils are 60-48 – 12 games over .500 for the first time since Aug. 20, 2018 – and are coming off of their third four-game sweep of the season.

They moved ahead of San Diego for the second NL wild-card spot and interim manager Rob Thomson is a whopping 38-19 since he took over for Joe Girardi, who was fired June 3.

The Phillies are doing all of this without league MVP Bryce Harper, who is still out indefinitely with a broken left thumb that happened when he was hit by a pitch at the end of June. The Phillies are 21-13 since then.

Harper, hitting .318 with 15 home runs, 48 RBI and .985 OPS, had pins removed last week and hit Sunday off a tee. So when he comes back, it will be like the Phillies made a Juan Soto-esque trade deadline deal without giving up any prospects.

Hoskins has seen his share of sizzling summer stretches melt into fall swoons during his first five seasons with the Phillies. But right now, they’re peaking in early August, doing what’s needed (winning 19 of the last 26 games against the NL East) and hoping trade-deadline acquisitions Syndergaard, veteran reliever David Robertson and center fielder Brandon Marsh will push the Phillies into the playoffs.

It’s not all outsiders contributing to the success: Hoskins, Nick Maton, Bohm and Bryson Stott comprise a completely homegrown infield, and Maton had four RBI and Stott three in Philadelphia’s 13-1 win Sunday over the Nationals.

As a coach with the Yankees, Thomson saw Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and other franchise legends come through the clubhouse with a World Series ring or two … or 10. Catching up with Rose, Carlton and other 1980 winners over the weekend stirred championship feelings.

“Any time you can hang around a world champion and start talking about that stuff, I think it helps,” Thomson said.

The Phillies play 35 of their final 54 games against teams with losing records, and Thomson can’t wait see to see how far the Phillies can go.

“I know the last few years we haven’t played well in September. But each team was a little different,” Thomson said. “It wasn’t the same exact group. This is a different group and there’s a lot of leadership in the clubhouse and a lot of winners on the field and they’re playing well. We’ve got an outstanding bullpen that’s pitching very well.

“I have a lot of confidence that this team can get right through at the end.”

BREWERS: In the week since trading of four-time All-Star closer Josh Hader, virtually nothing has gone right for the Milwaukee Brewers.

They owned a three-game lead in the NL Central when they sent Hader to the San Diego Padres, but have gone 1-5 since and trail the streaking St. Louis Cardinals by two games.

“It’s easy to go out and make excuses,” reigning Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes said Sunday after a 10-inning, 4-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. “That’s the easy route, is to make excuses for the way we played this last weekend and blame it on someone else. But we’ve got to point the fingers at ourselves here.”

If the season ended Monday, the Brewers would miss the playoffs for the first time since 2017 – 1 1/2 games behind the Padres in the race for the final wild-card spot.

The Brewers struggled against two of the NL’s weaker teams, losing three straight at Pittsburgh despite leading by multiple runs in the sixth inning or later in each game and then losing 2 of 3 at home to the Reds.

“We didn’t have a good week, but we have to look forward because we have a lot of baseball left,” Manager Craig Counsell said. “The season is going to throw you things that you don’t like.”

NL Central rival St. Louis, meanwhile, won seven straight, including a sweep of the AL East-leading New York Yankees.

Milwaukee’s schedule is about to get tougher: a 15-game stretch that includes a three-game series at St. Louis and seven meetings with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who own baseball’s best record.

Coincidental or not, the Brewers’ issues began immediately after they dealt Hader for pitchers Taylor Rogers and Dinelson Lamet, outfield prospect Esteury Ruiz and pitching prospect Robert Gasser. (Lamet was designated for assignment and claimed by the Colorado Rockies.)

The Brewers later acquired relievers Matt Bush and Trevor Rosenthal in separate deals. Rosenthal hasn’t pitched since 2020 due to injuries but could return by the end of the month.

Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio and president of baseball operations David Stearns have said trading Hader wasn’t a cost-cutting measure, but rather that they believed they could get a better return now than in the offseason. Hader makes $11 million this season, is eligible for arbitration in the offseason and could become a free agent after 2023.

“We are trying to avoid the `boom or bust’ cycle,” Stearns said. “We want this organization this year, next year, three years from now, five years from now, seven years from now, that when fans come and watch a Brewers game, they are watching a meaningful game. They are watching a game and a team that can and does go to the playoffs, and a team that has a legitimate chance to win a World Series.”

But without Hader, the bullpen hasn’t performed well, and a playoff bid isn’t for certain.

All-Star reliever Devin Williams’ string of 30 consecutive scoreless appearances ended when he allowed a walk-off homer to Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds two days after Hader’s departure. Bush has given up four runs – three earned – over 2 1/3 innings since joining the Brewers and threw a wild pitch to end another 10-inning one-run loss at Pittsburgh on Thursday. Rogers yielded a go-ahead run in the eighth inning Sunday.

The Brewers also have dealt with bad luck. After they designated reserve catcher Pedro Severino for assignment Wednesday, starting catcher Omar Narvaez strained his left quadriceps and landed on the injured list.

Outfielder Hunter Renfroe believes in the bullpen, saying he doesn’t believe there’s a hangover effect from the trade-deadline moves.

“I think Hader obviously was a lifeblood of the team,” Renfroe said. “He did a great job for us for a long time. It’s one of those things where, you lose a closer like that, it’s going to be tough for you for a little bit, but I think Devin’s got the stuff that he can come out there, step forward and do what he needs to do.”

If the Brewers stay afloat over the next month, their schedule provides the opportunity for a late surge – they play 20 of their last 26 games at home. And they’ve withstood rough patches before, dropping eight straight games from June 3-11 but regaining the division lead later that month.

“We know what we can do out there,” Burnes said. “So it’s just a matter of getting things going back on track.”

CUBS: The Chicago Cubs will cut ties with right fielder Jason Heyward after the 2022 season, ending one of the most expensive and unproductive free-agent singings.

“We’re not going to have him with the team next year,” Jed Hoyer, Cubs President of Baseball Operations, said. “We’ve already talked to him about that. We want to give him the full offseason to find an opportunity. For us, given where we are as a group and where we’re likely going to be in the corner outfield next year, with Seiya (Suzuki) in (right field), we’re going to move in a different direction.”

Heyward, who turns 33 on Tuesday, signed an eight-year, $184 million contract prior to the 2016 season but has batted only .245 with 62 home runs in seven seasons with the Cubs. Heyward is batting .204 with one home run and 10 RBI in 137 at-bats this season but has been on the 10-day injured list since June 27 because of right knee inflammation.

By releasing Heyward this winter, the Cubs will owe him $22 million for the final year of his contract. Once Heyward clears waivers, any team can claim him for the prorated minimum.

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