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Snider, Rios lift Blue Jays to comeback win over Orioles

Sep 18, 2008 - 5:31 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- In his first month in the major leagues, Travis Snider continues to come up big.

The highly touted rookie, who at 20 years old is the youngest player in baseball, snapped an eighth-inning tie with a sacrifice fly to lead the Toronto Blue Jays over the Baltimore Orioles, 8-7, on Wednesday.

Alex Rios homered and drove in three runs to help Toronto end a three-game losing streak.

"Every time you win at this point in the year, it's a good win," Rios said. "We're trying to finish strong and I think we're doing a good job. We were down in the first few innings and we didn't panic. We just did what we know how to do and it came out good."

Snider, who is hitting .341 (15-for-44) with 10 RBI in 14 games since being called up from Class AAA Syracuse, played a key role twice as the Blue Jays erased a big early deficit. The Orioles exploded for five runs in the fifth to take a 6-0 lead, a rally highlighted by Aubrey Huff's two-run homer - his 32nd of the season, two short of his career-high.

But the Blue Jays answered with five runs of their own in the bottom half. Scott Rolen drove in the first run, coming within inches of a homer and settling for an RBI triple off the top of the center field wall.

"As a starter, you have to go out there and minimize damage or put up a zero after a huge (offensive) inning like we had," said Orioles starter Brandon Bass, who lasted 4 1/3 innings, surrendering five runs and seven hits while striking out two. "I didn't do it, and (that) put the momentum right back in their dugout."

"He was locked in and then lost it," Baltimore manager Dave Trembley said. "Give (the Blue Jays) credit. They got the hits."

After Gregg Zaun was hit by a pitch, Snider ripped a single to right, scoring Rolen to make it 6-2. Three batters later, Rios capped the surge with a two-run double off the wall in left-center.

"They kind of picked it up a little bit," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "The guys picked it up in the fifth inning and got back out there and started battling just the way they have all year since I've been here.

"It was a team effort again. Everybody certainly chipped in and did something for the team."

After Rios' solo blast in the seventh briefly gave Toronto the lead, Baltimore forged a tie in the eighth on Luke Scott's RBI single. But Rolen and Snider came through in the clutch once again in the bottom of the frame, as the third baseman led off with a double and came around to score what proved to be the game-winning run on Snider's one-out sacrifice fly.

Rookie lefthander Jesse Carlson (7-1) faced just one batter to notch the win, but it was a big out. With two on and two outs in the eighth, he took over for Brandon League and got Nick Markakis to ground out weakly to first to end the threat.

Carlson has gone 12 consecutive outings without giving up a run, a span of 11 innings.

B.J. Ryan tossed a perfect ninth to record his 30th save.

Baltimore righthander Kam Mickolio (0-1) gave up one run and two hits in one inning to take the loss.

Brian Roberts had three hits and two RBI and Melvin Mora drove in a pair of runs for the Orioles.

Toronto starter David Purcey yielded six runs and 11 hits in five frames, striking out five and walking one.

"There was just a little stretch where I gave up a couple hits, left some balls up and they did a good job hitting them," Purcey said. "The credit goes to our offense."