TORONTO -- Blue Jays bats finished the season on a silent note Sunday as the playoff-bound Baltimore Orioles defeated Toronto 1-0 on the strength of a Jonathan Schoop home run.
Miguel Gonzalez (10-9) and five other pitchers blanked Toronto on six hits as Baltimore (96-66) heads into the post-season on a winning note. The Orioles had lost their last three and six of their last nine.
Schoop's fifth-inning homer, off Toronto starter R.A. Dickey, was his 16th of the season.
Toronto (83-79) had won the first two games of the series and came into the season finale having won six of its last eight.
The 2014 campaign marked Toronto's most wins since the Jays went 85-77 in 2010. Toronto finished 74-88 last season.
The game was played before a sellout crowd of 45,901 with the roof open under sunshine, with a 20-degree day making the winter headgear giveaway far from needed.
It was the Jays' 13th sellout of the season, lifting total attendance for the year to 2,375,525. That's down from last year's 2,536,562, which ranked 14th in the majors.
Toronto outhit Baitimore six to five and got the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth when Edwin Encarnacion led off with a single off Baltimore closer Zach Britton. But pinch-hitter Danny Valencia lined out to Steve Pearce, who doubled up pinch runner Juan Francisco off first after his acrobatic catch. Dalton Pompey then struck out.
Dickey (14-13) and Gonzalez offered little in the early going and what scraps were left on the table were squandered by both teams.
Gonzalez gave up five hits in five scoreless innings, striking out two and walking none. He threw 62 pitches, 45 for strikes.
Dickey exited after six innings, giving up one run on two hits with two strikeouts and three walks. He threw 82 pitches, including 46 strikes.
The 39-year-old knuckleballer hadn't lost in his seven previous starts, going 5-0 with a 3.15 ERA over that span. And he served better Sunday.
After giving up a single to open the game, Dickey did not yield another hit until two outs in the fifth when Schoop drove a ball over the left-centre fence for a solo shot. It was the 26th homer allowed by Dickey this season.
There had been danger signs earlier in the inning as Orioles hitters sent long balls just foul to both the left and right sides.
Toronto threatened in bottom of the fifth when Ryan Goins tripled to the right-field corner with two outs. But he was stranded there when Jose Reyes flied out.
Ubaldo Jimenez came on for Gonzalez to open the sixth as manager Buck Showalter looked to keep his starters fresh for the playoffs.
Jose Bautista made it to second via an error and stolen base with no outs in the sixth before Jimenez struck out Encarnacion, Adam Lind and Pompey.
Dickey was followed by 23-year-old September call-up Kendall Graveman, Brett Cecil and Casey Janssen.
The Orioles rolled out Andrew Miller and Tommy Hunter in the seventh, Darren O'Day in the eighth and Britton, who earned his 37th save, in the ninth.
Inside the Toronto clubhouse prior to the game, there was a "last day of school" feeling as players dumped shoes and other gear into cardboard boxes.
Reyes walked past wearing gold headphones and his trademark Superman undershirt. Bautista, also wearing headphones, sat hunched in his locker stall watching a video player.
Pitcher Todd Redmond, talking a break from a card game, captured the tone by playing Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends" on the locker-room sound system via his iPod. Semisonic's "Closing Time" played in the locker-room as reporters gathered in manager John Gibbons' nearby office for his final pre-game session of the season.
