BALTIMORE—It was only his first appearance at Camden Yards, but Aaron Sanchez in his one inning made an indelible first impression on the O’s faithful and on manager Buck Showalter. The hard-throwing 22-year-old right-hander, in the seventh inning of the Jays’ 6-1 loss, hit Jonathan Schoop, then came up and in two batters later to right fielder Steve Pearce, leaving him sprawled in the dirt with nothing to show but a foul ball, drawing a warning from plate umpire Paul Schrieber. Sanchez escaped a bases-loaded jam on an easy groundball to the mound by Nelson Cruz.

The Jays’ fine young arms have been front and centre in the series, with Sanchez, Marcus Stroman, Drew Hutchison, Kendall Graveman and Daniel Norris all having an opportunity. Stroman was suspended six games for his apparent wildness, while Sanchez was booed from the field for his. One man that should know, hall of fame pitcher Jim Palmer, likes what he sees in Sanchez.

As Sanchez grew up in California and developed into a top pitching prospect, he drew comparisons to the O’s legend. Sanchez’s father was a big fan of Palmer and the O’s, so after Sanchez had met him in the dugout on Monday and talked to his pitching hero at length before the game, the first call he made later that night to tell him about his brush with greatness was his father.

“He’s been one of my idols since I was little,” Sanchez admitted. “The more I came through baseball, I’ve had comparisons between me and him and it was an honour to sit down and have a conversation and finally meet him for the first time.

“It wasn’t anything particularly about baseball. It’s more about, ‘Hey, how’s it going. I heard about you. Just keep doing what you’re doing.’ ”

Palmer, currently a TV broadcaster on the Orioles’ network, has only seen Sanchez throw in person twice, but came away impressed. He enjoys talking to the kids that pass through Camden Yards.

“But what an arm,” Palmer said. “He has a great arm and the thing about making a decision here, like we have with (Kevin) Gausman, is he going to be in the bullpen or not?”

The Jays have a clubhouse full of pitchers with starting potential. Palmer knows what that’s like. In 1966 at age 19 he joined Dave McNally, 23, and Wally Bunker, 21, as three young starters that went on to win the World Series over the heavily favoured Dodgers. Palmer believes that the experience of being in the major leagues in September will only help the young callups.

“Well you get to pitch, whether it’s Graveman or Norris, whatever,” Palmer said. “But you need to pitch a little bit more than that. I just think they have enough arms where maybe next year, because, you know, with (Mark) Buehrle and (R.A.) Dickey back, that’s 200 innings from each of those guys ... There’s two guys. Then (Drew) Hutchison and you’ve got Stroman.”

Sanchez, of course, is also in the discussion to be a part of the 2015 rotation. That leaves several others at Triple-A Buffalo as inventory. Sanchez feels that potential for growing together inside the clubhouse that others see on the field.

“Absolutely, I mean just look at the guys we have in there,” Sanchez said. “I know we’ve got a lot of veteran guys that are taking us under their wing and showing us how to go about business the right way and hopefully when their careers are done and it’s us in the rotation we can become the ‘66 O’s, that kind of team. That’s what we’re shooting to do while we’re here and only time will tell.”

The Blue Jays’ incumbent starting pitcher that may feel most threatened by the presence of all the good, emerging young arms is Wednesday’s starter, J.A. Happ. The 31-year-old has a club option for 2015 that pays him $6.7 million. It will be a tough decision for GM Alex Anthopoulos.

Happ (9-11) made two mistakes in six-plus innings, a couple of home run balls to right fielder Steve Pearce, and that was enough for the AL East champion Orioles who rode his four RBIs to victory and a three-game sweep. In Happ’s 11 losses, the Jays have scored just 17 runs.

Meanwhile, after taking a foul tip off the facemask, — a blow that deposited him onto the seat of the pants and that he admitted briefly knocked him out — catcher Dioner Navarro was given the night off on Wednesday.

“I was just a little fuzzy last night,” he said. “I just think the accumulation of foul tips in the head, it can never be a good thing. I felt that one last night and they decided to give me a day off today. We passed the concussion test, which is a huge plus for us. I’m just laying down low and trying to be ready for tomorrow.”

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The question then becomes how many tomorrows will it be before the games mean nothing and will Navarro keep heading out there until the mathematical possibility exhausts itself.

“We’re still right there man,” Navarro said. “Five games back, anything can happen.”

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