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Orioles-Blue Jays Preview

Jul 27, 2010 - 3:50 AM By JON PALMIERI STATS Editor

Baltimore (31-67) at Toronto (50-49), 7:07 p.m. EDT

Winning 10 straight games against one team is quite an accomplishment.

Still, the Toronto Blue Jays may want to consider the opponent before getting overly excited about their success against the Baltimore Orioles.

The Blue Jays look to make it 11 consecutive wins against the lowly Orioles on Tuesday night when the teams continue their series at Rogers Centre.

Toronto (51-49) opened a six-game homestand Monday night with a visit from its favorite opponent and continued its mastery of Baltimore (31-68) with a 9-5 victory. Jose Bautista hit a three-run homer - his major league-leading 28th - and Aaron Hill and Adam Lind added two-run shots as the Blue Jays improved to 7-4 since the All-Star break.

The Blue Jays have outscored the Orioles 57-21 in winning the first 10 meetings this season, including a 25-8 edge in the four games at Toronto. The 10-game streak is the team's longest against Baltimore since a 13-game run April 11, 1999-May 10, 2000.

"It's nice to be able to beat somebody every time you play them," said Bautista, who has four homers and 10 RBIs this season against the Orioles.

Toronto increased its major league-leading homer total to 152, a major league-high 37 coming in July. The Jays have outhomered the Orioles 21-4 this year.

Matt Wieters had the first multihomer game of his career and Luke Scott also went deep for Baltimore, which has lost nine straight and 18 of 20 at Toronto.

The Orioles have dropped nine of 11 in the second half as their starting pitchers have compiled an 8.51 ERA.

"We just can't continue to do this or we're going to kill those guys down in the bullpen," interim manager Juan Samuel said.

Scott has been a bright spot lately. He is 14 for 31 (.451) with five homers, three doubles, eight runs and 10 RBIs in eight games since being activated from the disabled list.

Ricky Romero (7-7, 3.52 ERA) will try to keep the Jays perfect against the Orioles in 2010. The left-hander was terrible in his final two starts before the All-Star break, lasting five innings while posting a 23.40 ERA. He has been a different pitcher in his last two outings, allowing three earned runs and 12 hits in 14 innings.

Romero was a 5-2 loser at Detroit on Thursday despite limiting the Tigers to three runs and seven hits in seven-plus innings.

He beat the Orioles for the second time in two tries this season in his previous start. Baltimore managed only two unearned runs and five hits in seven innings while Romero walked one and struck out five in a 4-2 victory July 16.

Kevin Millwood (2-9, 5.84) hopes to solve his first-inning woes for the Orioles. The veteran has allowed at least two first-inning runs in nine of his last 10 starts, a disturbing trend that continued Thursday in a 5-0 home loss to Minnesota. He gave up three runs in the opening inning but settled down after that to limit the Twins to two more runs over 6 1-3 innings.

Millwood gave up five runs over six innings in a 5-0 loss at Toronto on May 28.

He is 2-6 with a 4.91 ERA in 11 starts against the Blue Jays.

Bautista is 4 for 9 with two homers, a double and a triple off the right-hander.