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Blue Jays-Orioles Preview

Sep 15, 2010 - 4:01 AM By JON PALMIERI STATS Editor

Toronto (73-71) at Baltimore (56-88), 7:05 p.m. EDT

Kyle Drabek is already familiar with Camden Yards, even if he was a 10-year-old kid at the time.

Drabek will make his major league debut Wednesday night for the Toronto Blue Jays in the same park where his father, Doug, closed out his career with the Baltimore Orioles.

One of three players acquired from Philadelphia in the December trade that sent Roy Halladay to the Phillies, Drabek is among the top prospects in baseball. He went 14-9 with a 2.98 ERA in 27 starts for Double-A New Hampshire to earn Eastern League pitcher of the year honors, and threw a no-hitter against New Britain on July 4.

"We think Kyle is going to be a factor for us in the rotation and we think he's going to be able to compete for a starting job next season in spring training," Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said.

Doug Drabek won 155 games during a 13-year career with the Yankees, Pittsburgh, Houston, the White Sox and Orioles, winning the NL Cy Young Award with the Pirates in 1990. He went 6-11 for Baltimore in 1998.

"Ever since I got drafted, (dad's) been great," the 22-year-old Drabek told the Blue Jays' official website. "To be able to go home, it's like having a pitching coach who lives with you. ... He taught me so much, not only about the physical part of the game but the mental part too."

Drabek will try to help the Blue Jays avoid a three-game sweep and their seventh loss in eight games after Baltimore continued its late-season resurgence with an 11-3 victory Tuesday night. Rookie Jake Arrieta pitched six scoreless innings and Robert Andino capped a six-run seventh with a three-run double, leading the Orioles to their eighth win in 10 games.

"I think we've really turned the corner as a team, defensively, offensively, our starters, our bullpen," Arrieta said. "The players, we're the ones out there getting the job done. But (manager) Buck (Showalter) deserves a lot of credit for the things he's done with this team."

Nick Markakis and Adam Jones homered for Baltimore (57-88), which has won four consecutive series for the first time since August 2004. The Orioles have won the first two games of this set after opening the season with 12 straight losses to the Blue Jays.

Markakis is batting .372 (16 for 43) during a 10-game hitting streak. His next double will make him the third player in history with 43 or more in four straight seasons. The others are Tris Speaker and Joe Medwick.

Aaron Hill homered Tuesday for the Blue Jays (73-72), extending Toronto's streak of consecutive games with a home run to 16 - the team's longest such run since a franchise-record 23-game streak in 2000.

Brad Bergesen (6-10, 5.29) will try to avoid a fourth loss in as many starts this season against the Blue Jays. The right-hander is 0-2 with a 9.77 ERA versus Toronto in 2010. He has allowed nine runs over 10 2-3 innings in a pair of outings at Camden Yards against the Jays.

Bergesen is coming off one of his best starts of the year, however, holding the Yankees to one run and four hits over 6 1-3 innings Wednesday. He stood to earn his fourth win in five decisions before Koji Uehara blew the save in the ninth inning.