Blue Jays 3 - 4 Orioles
Final
  for this game

Orioles aim for series win against Jays

Apr 23, 2013 - 3:03 PM

Video

(Sports Network) - The Baltimore Orioles target their third straight series win when they continue a three-game set versus the Toronto Blue Jays Tuesday night from Camden Yards.

The Orioles have won consecutive series against Tampa Bay and Los Angeles, and took the opener of this series with Toronto on Monday by a 2-1 score in dramatic fashion. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Nick Markakis singled home Chris Davis to end the game.

Markakis had two hits and Davis tallied the other RBI for the Orioles, who have ripped off five wins in the last seven games and sit two games off the pace in the AL East.

O's starter Chris Tillman gave up a run on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings, while Jim Johnson earned the win with a perfect inning of relief.

"I was able to get ahead with my pitches early, and my secondary stuff was there for me," said Tillman. "I was able to pound the strike zone early and kind of make the pitches when I needed to."

Miguel Gonzalez takes the ball for Baltimore Tuesday and is 0-1 in his last two starts since winning his season debut. Gonzalez recorded a no-decision in last Thursday's 10-6 win over the Rays and didn't have his best stuff, allowing five runs -- four earned -- and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Gonzalez, a right-hander, is 1-1 with a 4.00 earned run average this season and 1-1 with a 4.32 ERA in three career games (2 starts) against Toronto.

Toronto opened a seven-game road trip on Monday and lost for the fifth time in seven tries. Aaron Loup served up Markakis' game-winning hit and Jays starter J.A. Happ had his performance wasted. Happ tossed six innings of one-run ball and fanned six batters.

Colby Rasmus had Toronto's lone RBI.

"We battled, but they played just as well and came out on top with the big hit there at the end," said Toronto manager John Gibbons. "That's the way it goes sometimes."

The Blue Jays, who will visit Yankee Stadium for four games later this week, hope R.A. Dickey can shake some aches and pains when he toes the rubber Tuesday. Dickey, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, is battling with tightness in his upper back and neck.

Dickey has won back-to-back starts since losing his first two in a Blue Jays uniform. He last took the ball in Thursday's 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox and kept the Pale Hose scoreless through six innings, striking out seven with just one walk. The knuckleballer is 2-2 with a 4.30 ERA.

The right-handed Dickey is 2-2 with a 2.97 ERA in seven career games (4 starts) against the Orioles.

Toronto lost 11 of the 18 meetings with Baltimore last season.






Related News