Jays fall to Orioles

BALTIMORE—A couple of hours before Baltimore faced the Toronto Blue Jays last night, the lineup in the Orioles’ clubhouse was completed except for the No. 2 slot.
Manager Dave Trembley wanted to be sure Adam Jones had recovered from an ankle injury that forced the centre-fielder to miss Sunday’s game. Jones insisted he was all right and, after proving it during batting practice, was inserted into the starting lineup.

The move paid off for the Orioles, who got two important hits from Jones in an 8-3 victory.
Jones homered in the third inning, then legged out an infield single in a three-run fifth—one day after being sidelined with a swollen right ankle.
“He was determined to play tonight,” Trembley said of Jones. “He’s 22 years old. I think he’s got a great mind-set.
“Other than his ability and his tools and everything, the guy’s got his head on right.”
Jones went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer and scored twice. He now has reached base safely in 20-straight games, going 29-for-78 (.372) with 15 RBIs over that span.
As he ate heartily from the post-game spread, Jones had a huge ice pack wrapped around his tender ankle.
“I wanted to play [Sunday] but I treated it as an off day,” he said. “It didn’t hurt [Monday]. It felt just like a normal day. It didn’t hurt at all.”
Ramon Hernandez homered for the Orioles, who climbed out of last place in the AL East ahead of Toronto.
Baltimore went up 6-3 in the fifth against Jesse Litsch (8-7). After Brian Roberts doubled with one out, Jones hit a grounder deep in the hole at shortstop and beat the throw from David Eckstein.
“It gave us an extra out,” noted Trembley.
With two outs, Aubrey Huff walked to load the bases for Melvin Mora, who chased Litsch with a two-run single up the middle.
“A couple of balls left over the middle [of the plate] and they capitalized on it, especially with runners in scoring position,” Litsch said.
Litsch allowed six runs in 4 2/3 innings and fell to 1-6 since May 29.
“He made a couple of mistakes tonight and he paid for it. If he’d get that last out [in the third] instead of having that two-run homer hit against him, we come back into the dugout even,” Toronto manager Cito Gaston said.
“I know he’s trying hard,” Gaston added. “Too hard? I don’t know. He’s just got to make the pitches.”
After Litsch left, Luke Scott greeted Brandon League with a run-scoring single—his seventh RBI in five games since the all-star break.
Hernandez hit a two-run shot in the eighth against Jason Frasor. Only two of his 10 home runs have come with runners on base.
Elsewhere in the AL, N.Y. bombed Minnesota 12-4, Detroit routed Kansas City 19-4, Tampa Bay blanked Oakland 4-0, Texas downed Chicago 6-1, Cleveland beat L.A. 5-2, and Boston bounced Seattle 4-0.
Over in the NL, Pittsburgh dumped Houston 9-3, Milwaukee doubled St. Louis 6-3, Atlanta blanked Florida 4-0, San Diego beat Cincinnati 6-4, Arizona downed Chicago 2-0, and L.A. topped Colorado 16-10.