Final
Blue Jays try to maintain home dominance of Orioles
Jun 16, 2011 - 2:33 PMVideo
The surging first baseman will try to lead the Blue Jays to a 17th straight home victory over the Baltimore Orioles and a three-game sweep of this series between the teams this afternoon at Rogers Centre.
Lind is batting .421 (16-for-38) in 11 games since returning from a back ailment that caused him to miss nearly a month of action. He has six homers and 14 runs batted in over that span and went deep for a second straight game in last night's 4-1 victory over the Orioles.
"I just really wanted to make contact. I put a good swing on it," said Lind, who is batting .337 this year after posting just a .237 average a season ago, of Wednesday's homer.
Yunel Escobar and Juan Rivera also homered for Toronto, while Ricky Romero hurled eight-plus innings of one-run ball and struck out a career high-tying 12 batters to earn his sixth victory of the season and lift the Blue Jays to a second straight win.
Matt Wieters drove in Baltimore's lone run and Jake Arrieta gave up three runs over 6 2/3 innings as he failed in his bid to become a nine-game winner.
"I attacked hitters for the most part really well," said Arrieta. "A consequence of that was a few base hits."
Another consequence was the Orioles once again failing to win at Toronto, where they haven't prevailed since Aug. 7, 2009. They have lost in 25 of their last 27 trips to Canada and are just 4-19 in the past 23 meetings overall in this series.
With the Blue Jays sending starter Kyle Drabek to the minors to work on his control issues, Zach Stewart will make the first start of his career this afternoon hoping to secure the sweep for Toronto.
The 24-year-old righty went 4-3 with a 4.39 earned run average in 12 starts with Double-A New Hampshire this season and has pitched well recently to earn his chance in the big leagues.
"Zach is someone that was very close to a callup last year," Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos told his club's website. "He has done everything we asked him to do. He hasn't been up here before, his last three starts in New Hampshire he pitched well [1-0 with a 2.37 ERA].
"Just being down there and talking to the staff they feel he deserves an opportunity. It's really a good time to give him a shot, to give him a look and see how he does."
Taking the hill for the Orioles is Jeremy Guthrie, who is 0-2 over his past four outings but did avoid a third straight losing start on Saturday.
The right-hander held Tampa Bay to three runs on eight hits over six innings and left with the lead, but ended up with a no-decision in Baltimore's 7-5 defeat in 11 innings.
Guthrie, who is 2-8 with a 3.77 ERA in 14 games this year, lost to the Blue Jays in his previous outing on June 5. He was tagged for six runs over five innings, giving up homers to Escobar and Lind, and fell to 2-7 with a 3.80 ERA in 16 career starts versus Toronto.
- BALTIMORE: 4
TORONTO: 3
Final
Jun 16 3:08 PM - Adam Lind lead-off Home Run (14) to right. Aaron Hill due up.
Orioles 4, Blue Jays 3 Bot 9, 0 OutsJun 16 3:05 PM - Shawn Camp enters the game for the Blue Jays with the bases loaded and none out.
Orioles 4, Blue Jays 2 Top 9, 0 OutsJun 16 2:53 PM - Derrek Lee's fielder's choice scored Nolan Reimold with none out. On the play, Luke Scott advances to second. Runners on first and second and Mark Reynolds due up.
Orioles 3, Blue Jays 2 Top 9, 0 OutsJun 16 2:43 PM - Jose Bautista single to center scored Jayson Nix and Yunel Escobar with one out. Runner on first and Adam Lind due up.
Orioles 2, Blue Jays 2 Bot 6, 1 OutJun 16 1:59 PM - Vladimir Guerrero double to left scored Nick Markakis with one out. Runner on second and Luke Scott due up.
Orioles 2, Blue Jays 0 Top 6, 1 OutJun 16 1:50 PM - J.J. Hardy lead-off Home Run (7) to left. Nick Markakis due up.
Orioles 1, Blue Jays 0 Top 6, 0 OutsJun 16 1:45 PM - BALTIMORE: 0
TORONTO: 0
Top 1, 0 Outs
Jun 16 12:38 PM
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