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Halladay strong as Blue Jays top Orioles

Jul 24, 2008 - 10:24 PM BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Coming off a tough outing, the Baltimore Orioles were the perfect team to help Roy Halladay return to form.

Halladay pitched seven strong innings and Adam Lind had three hits and two runs scored as the Toronto Blue Jays posted a 7-1 victory over the Orioles on Thursday.

The righthander allowed one run and seven hits over his 119-pitch outing, striking out six. Halladay (12-7) improved to 18-4 in his career against the Orioles, easily the most wins he has against one opponent.

"We made pitches when we had to," Halladay said. "I just wanted to get ahead in the count more today, but I didn't and that led to a high pitch count for me."

Lyle Overbay and Gregg Zaun each had two RBI for the Blue Jays, who won the final three games of the four-game series. Toronto defeated Baltimore, 5-1, earlier on Thursday, completing the suspended game from Wednesday night.

"It was a team effort," Blue Jay manager Cito Gaston said. "I am very pleased with the way we played both games today."

The Blue Jays got on the board in the third when Joe Inglett was hit by a pitch and eventually moved to third on a single by Marco Scutaro. Daniel Cabrera uncorked a wild pitch, plating Inglett and giving Toronto a 1-0 lead.

"I thought the problem was the leadoff guy," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. "He got the lead-off guy on and that just led to problems for him."

Two batters later, Overbay hit an RBI single to right, doubling the Blue Jays' advantage.

Toronto scored single runs in the fourth and fifth to extend its advantage to 4-0. Brad Wilkerson plated Lind with an RBI single and Overbay hit a sacrifice fly to left one inning later.

Zaun had a two-run single and Scutaro had a sacrifice fly as part of a three-run sixth inning that gave Toronto a 7-0 bulge.

"It will be nice to come out tomorrow and score seven runs again," Gaston said. "The more runs we score the more confidence these guys get."

Luke Scott broke up the shutout with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth for Baltimore.

Cabrera (6-6) allowed a season-high seven earned runs and 11 hits in five-plus innings.

"It's not mechanics," Cabrera said. "I think it's the location or maybe my pitch selection."