Recap: Baltimore vs. Toronto
Sports Network | September 28, 2008
Baltimore, MD (Sports Network) - Vernon Wells went 4-for-4, homered twice and drove in five runs, and the Toronto Blue Jays pounded the Baltimore Orioles, 10-1, in the regular-season finale for both clubs.
Lyle Overbay also homered for the Blue Jays (86-76), who finished with a 51-37 mark under Cito Gaston, the former Toronto manager who replaced John Gibbons. Gibbons was fired on June 20 after a 35-39 start by Toronto.
"It was nice to finish with a win today and go ten games over .500," said Gaston, who signed a contract extension last week that runs through 2010. "That was a goal I set at one time and we did get there. Hopefully, next year we will be heading to a playoff game. The guys played hard and finished up good."
Jesse Litsch (13-9) held the Orioles to one run on three hits in seven innings with five strikeouts and a walk to finish the season with a win for the Blue Jays, who took two of three games in this rain-sogged series. Both the Friday and Saturday games were stopped after seven innings because of rain.
Nick Markakis went 3-for-4 for the Orioles (68-93), who lost 11 of 12 to finish with 93 losses for the second straight year. Baltimore has lost 90-plus games in three straight years and six of eight, and hasn't had a winning campaign since 1997, when it went 98-64 and won the AL East.
Jeremy Guthrie (10-12) gave up three runs on six hits in four frames to take the loss for Baltimore.
Wells led off the second with a homer to left, giving Toronto the early lead, and the Blue Jays never looked back. Wells singled in a run in the third, and Overbay's leadoff homer in the fourth, his 15th, gave the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead.
Wells belted a three-run shot to left with two outs in the fifth, his 20th, and Toronto took a 6-0 edge.
"When you get runs on the board you get confidence and it makes it a lot easier to go out there and pitch," said Litsch.
Travis Snider's sacrifice fly made it a 7-0 lead in the sixth. Melvin Mora finally got the O's on the board in the home half of the frame with an RBI double.
The Blue Jays added three runs in the eighth on RBI singles by Marco Scutaro, pinch-hitter Brad Wilkerson, and pinch-hitter Kevin Mench.
Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts fouled a ball off his foot in the sixth, and was then hit by a pitch later in the at-bat. He left with a foot injury, and Alex Cintron came on as a pinch-runner...It was Wells' 18th career multi- homer game, and his 15th career four-hit game...The Orioles finished 4-21 on Sundays.
