The Baltimore Orioles let more decent starting pitching go to waste as they were swept away in the three-game weekend series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Kevin Millwood, Chris Tillman and Jeremy Guthrie all put together solid performances that were wasted by the bullpen and more bad offense.
As good as Baltimore starting pitching was, Toronto’s was much, much better.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Toronto’s starters got the chance to face the O’s lackluster lineup.
Despite the ugly series, manager Dave Trembley managed to keep his job through Monday’s off day.
Friday, June 4, 2010 at 4:25 pm by steve
The Tampa Bay Rays dug themselves out of a 5-run hole, rallying in the ninth inning for a 7-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays after manager Joe Maddon was ejected.
Tampa Bay found itself trailing 5-3 heading into its last at-bat, but had runners on the corners with one out with Carlos Pena at the plate. With two strikes, Pena called for timeout but wasn’t awarded one by umpire Angel Hernandez, and an unprepared Pena struck out looking. Maddon rushed out of the dugout to argue and was promptly tossed by Hernandez.
Without their leader and down to their final out, the Rays found a way to escape the jaws of defeat. Toronto closer Kevin Gregg walked two consecutive batters to shrink the lead to one, and then Sean Rodriguez hit a bases-clearing double to give the Rays a 7-5 lead. Gregg walked a career-high five batters in the inning while surrendering just a single hit, and was ejected for yelling at Hernandez on his way to the dugout after being taken out of the game by manager Cito Gaston.
Vernon Wells pulled the Blue Jays within one with an RBI double, but Rays closer Rafael Soriano earned his 15th save in 15 chances by getting Jose Bautista to fly out to end the game.
The bullpen wasted a terrific performance by Toronto starter Brian Tallet, who came off the disabled list to pitch 5 2/3 shutout innings.
Grant Balfour got the win in relief for Tampa Bay. Rookie starter Jeff Niemann was bailed out after his worst outing of the season, surrendering nine hits and five runs in 6 1/3 innings.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 8:26 am by Raj Sethi
The Toronto Blue Jays completed a three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, winning 6-1 behind a pitching gem by Ricky Romero and three more home runs. Toronto leads the majors with 88 on the season.
Romero went the distance, striking out seven while not allowing a run after the opening frame. The bottom of the lineup provided the offense to support him, as No. 6 and No. 7 hitters Alex Gonzalez and Lyle Overbay combined to go 5 for 7 with two home runs and four RBI.
Jose Bautista continued his startling power surge, hitting his league-leading 16th bomb on the year.
The Orioles drew first blood on an RBI single by Nick Markakis in the first inning, the only starter with a batting average above. 300 (.307). But starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie couldn’t make it stick, giving up three runs in the bottom of the first. He did settle down after that, finishing the day with 4 ER allowed in six innings of work, but the offense couldn’t get anything going against Romero, who allowed just six hits on the day.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 7:02 am by Raj Sethi
