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Hill helps Blue Jays edge Orioles in 10 innings

Aug 19, 2007 - 9:32 PM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Aaron Hill's sacrifice fly in the 10th inning plated Vernon Wells with the winning run, lifting the Toronto Blue Jays to a 3-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.

With runners on the corners and one out, Hill lofted a fairly deep fly ball to left field. Jay Payton made the grab, but Wells easily beat the throw home.

It was Toronto's sixth win in 12 extra-inning contests.

"In that situation I was just hoping to get a pitch that I could elevate," Hill said. "The first pitch I was kind of looking for a slider, but luckily I got another one on the second pitch. Fortunately it worked out all right."

Both starting pitchers turned in brilliant performances Sunday.

Toronto ace Roy Halladay allowed two runs and six hits in nine innings while tying throwing 125 pitches, one off his season-high.

"Both guys pitched great," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "Guthrie's one of the best up-and-coming guys in the American League and we know what (Halladay's) all about."

The 2003 AL Cy Young Award winner has traditionally pitched well against the Orioles. He is 14-4 in 23 games - 19 starts - lifetime against Baltimore.

"It's fun to pitch in games like that," said Halladay, who surpassed 1,500 innings pitched for his career. "I felt good the whole time. I never felt tired."

Scott Downs (2-2) relieved Halladay and allowed one hit in one inning to get the win.

Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie both started and finished strong. The rookie righthander, who retired his first 11 batters as well as the final 12 he faced, allowed two runs and three hits in eight innings. In addition, Guthrie struck out six and did not walk a batter.

"I had really good command, and when you have good command a lot of good things can happen," Guthrie said. "It's fun to go up against pitchers that you know are going to put up zeros. It makes you that much more focused."

After lefthander Jamie Walker retired the first two batters in the ninth, righthander Chad Bradford (2-6) was unable to get the job done in the 10th.

"A loss is a loss," Bradford said. "I was just trying to get them out any way I could and it just didn't work out."

Baltimore opened the scoring in the third as Brian Roberts, whose single plated Payton earlier in the inning, came around to score on Kevin Millar's fielder's choice to give the Orioles a 2-0 lead.

Toronto cut the deficit in half in the fourth, courtesy of Wells' double to deep right center which scored Alex Rios.

Troy Glaus led off the fifth with a solo blast, his 16th homer run of the season, to tie the game at 2-2.

"It wasn't where I wanted it," Guthrie said. "Obviously (Glaus) was able to put it out of the ballpark. We needed to put it down a little but lower, maybe put it in the dirt and have him chase it."

Baltimore had a chance to take the lead in the 10th. With Roberts on first and one out, pinch hitter J.R. House singled to right but was thrown out rounding first by Toronto shortstop John McDonald, who had cut off the relay throw. The next batter, Nick Markakis, grounded to second to end the threat.

"It was just a bad base-running mistake on my part," House said. "It was good to get the hit, but at the same time it was kind of all for naught."

"He took to big a turn and there was no place to go," Baltimore manager Dave Trembley said. "He did a great job at the plate, we had the table set for (Markakis) and we ran ourselves out of the inning with a baserunning mistake."

Toronto designated hitter Frank Thomas failed to reach on a walk, keeping him at 1,612 for his career and two shy from tying Eddie Yost for ninth all-time.