The Orioles are now 0-11 against the Toronto Blue Jays in 2010. Not even a veteran like Kevin Millwood could stop the bleeding last night in the Orioles 8-2 loss. Geeze for crying out loud...the O's might as well wear pink shirts when they play the Blue Jays as opposed to white or gray! I suppose you have to chalk this up to a certain amount of dumb luck in that you have to take one game at a time, and obviously previous games bear very little relevance to today. However the fact remains that Toronto seems to beat the O's with little problems. Honestly, the Orioles play better against Boston and New York than they do against Toronto.
In the case of last night's game, the Orioles decided to rest Brian Roberts again seeing that they were playing on artificial turf. So as has been the case for most of the year, the Orioles were without their offensive trend-setter. After the Orioles went quietly in the first, the game was busted open in a sense in the last of the inning when Jose Bautista drove in a three-run homer. Bautista would also homer in the bottom of the eight to cap off the scoring on Toronto's 8-2 victory. Millwood looked extremely vulnerable through his entire start, but most Oriole starters have appeared as such when they've played the Blue Jays this season. So is Millwood hurt again? I suppose it's possible, but I think that the entire team is just struggling right now, and he's no exception. According to Roch Kubatko of www.masnsports.com, the Orioles are now unlikely to move Millwood before Saturday's trade deadline, as his stock has plummeted. However, they might still be able to trade him through waivers before the second deadline.
Luckily for 'dem O's, Jeremy Guthrie takes the mound in tonight's series finale. Ironically, he'll be opposed by Brad Mills, a pitcher that's going to be coming up from the minors to make the start. The O's have found themselves in that position a few times of late, eh? Mills won't be making his major league debut, as he appeared twice for the Jays last season, however he is a young starter with a career 14.09 ERA in the majors. So for once the shoe's on the other foot; the Orioles are tossing a veteran starter in Guthrie, against another team's young gun. Guthrie's had two quality starts in a row, and is coming off a win against the Twins last week. Let's hope that the shoe truly is on the other foot in that the young starter struggles to stop the opposition from scoring.
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