Blue Jays try to continue mastery of Orioles

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07/27/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Plenty of teams have given the Baltimore Orioles trouble over the course of this season, but none has proven to be a tougher opponent than the Toronto Blue Jays.

Having won all 10 meetings between the American League East foes so far in 2010, Toronto will attempt to extend that astounding streak when it continues a three-game series with the hapless Orioles tonight at the Rogers Centre.

The Blue Jays maintained their recent mastery over Baltimore with a 9-5 triumph in Monday's opener of this set. The win was also Toronto's ninth in a row against the Orioles at the Rogers Centre, where Baltimore has now lost in 14 of its last 15 visits.

Toronto used its trademark power to prevail last night, with Jose Bautista, Aaron Hill and Adam Lind all hitting homers to pace a 13-hit attack. Bautista's blast, a three-run shot off O's starter Brad Bergesen in the fifth inning, gives the 2010 All-Star a major league-best 28 round-trippers this season.

Lind had a solo homer later in the fifth and finished 3-for-4 with two RBI, while Hill had two hits and knocked in three runs to help the Blue Jays to their third win in four games.

"It's been a season of adjustments and trying to figure things out, hopefully, it's starting to come together," said Lind, who's still batting a subpar .222 for the year. "It's been tough, a lot of work. I'm just going to come back [Tuesday] and try to do it all over again."

Jays starter Brandon Morrow (7-6) added six solid innings on the mound to win on his 26th birthday, with the hard-throwing righty holding Baltimore to two runs and striking out six batters.

Bergesen (3-9) wasn't nearly as effective, as the Blue Jays pounded the second-year major-leaguer for eight runs and 10 hits over the first five innings.

"It was a tough one tonight," said Bergesen afterward. "Obviously, that's one you want to get done with and put it behind you. They jumped on me in the fourth inning and got the timely hits they needed."

Baltimore did homer three times in its latest loss, with Matt Wieters going deep twice and driving in three runs. Luke Scott, named the AL's Player of the Week on Monday, had a two-run shot in defeat.

The Blue Jays have now swatted 152 homers on the season, far and away the most of any team in the majors. Twenty-one of them have come in the club's 10 wins over Baltimore.

Ricky Romero has had a hand in two of Toronto's victories over the Orioles this season, and the talented young hurler was quite impressive in both of those outings. The left-hander, who draws the assignment for the Jays this evening, fired a complete-game six-hitter in a 6-1 besting of Baltimore at the Rogers Centre back in May, then yielded just two unearned runs over seven sharp innings to deal the O's another loss on July 16.

Although he won 13 times during a strong rookie campaign in 2009, Romero did have the same success against Baltimore he's enjoyed this season. The former first-round pick went 0-2 with a 5.47 earned run average in four encounters with the Orioles last year, while surrendering five homers in a combined 26 1/3 innings.

Romero followed up his July 16 victory over the Orioles by working a solid seven innings this past Thursday, even though it resulted in a loss to the Detroit Tigers. The 25-year-old was touched for three runs on seven hits that day.

Kevin Millwood gets the call for Baltimore tonight, with the seasoned veteran set to make his second start since returning from a short stint on the disabled list. He managed to pitch 6 1/3 innings in the comeback appearance, but was still hung with a loss after allowing five runs to the Minnesota Twins last Thursday.

The defeat brought Millwood's 2010 record to 2-9 and raised his ERA to 5.82, the highest of his 14-year tenure in the majors. Two of those setbacks have come at the hands of the Blue Jays, including a May 28 loss at the Rogers Centre in which the 35-year-old was reached for five runs (four earned) and gave up a pair of homers over six innings.

Millwood has struggled on the road throughout the year, bringing a 1-5 ledger with a 5.82 ERA in nine away starts into tonight's clash.

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The NFL preseason is approaching. Time for players, coaches and teams to turn over a new leaf. General managers have hired some new coaches, while coaches have added some offensive and defensive assistants to try and improve things. Here’s a look at some changes to look for in the preseason.

New York Jets: The Jets were one of the surprise teams in the NFL last season, making the playoffs under hard-driving first-year coach Eric Mangini. Mangini rebuilt the offensive line with rookies D'Brickashaw Ferguson (the No. 4 pick in the 2007 Draft) and Ohio State center (the 29th pick in the first round). This season he upgraded the defense with rookie linebacker David Harris (Michigan) while the secondary picked up a much needed top-notch corner in Pitt CB Darrelle Revis (No. 14 overall).

The Jets have added balance to the offense for QB Chad Pennington with RB Thomas Jones, essentially stolen from the Bears. He will upgrade a New York ground game that was 20th in rushing with a weak 3.5 yards per carry. They have their first true feature back since Curtis Martin. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer prefers ball control, like his father Marty. In preseason, behind Pennington you’ll see second-year QB Kellen Clemens and mobile newcomer QB Marques Tuiasosopo.

Jacksonville Jaguars: The heat is on Jack Del Rio in Jacksonville as the Jaguars flopped last season despite a ton of talent. Keep in mind that under Del Rio the Jaguars have been outstanding in preseason with a 12-4 SU, 11-5 ATS August mark. online football betting Their defense is loaded, it’s the offense that has been stuck in first gear the last few years.

Enter a new offensive coordinator in Dirk Koetter, the former Boise State and Arizona State pass-happy coach. He will try and upgrade a passing game that ranked 24th last season. Del Rio has criticized wide receivers and Matt Jones this summer, both of whom have battled injuries. It will be interesting to watch the “new” Jaguars passing game in preseason.

Arizona Cardinals: Word out of Arizona is that the players like new coach Ken Whisenhunt, who was the Steelers offensive coordinator last year. We think of Arizona as all-passing because their running game has been awful of late because of a poor offensive line. However, keep an eye on the running game in preseason as they’ve made a lot of changes.

The new coach brings in Russ Grimm to coach the offensive line (Grimm did a marvelous job building the Steelers line). They took Penn State OT Levi Jones in the first round and signed two offensive linemen, Mike Gandy and Al Johnson, to provide depth. Reggie Wells was moved from right tackle to left guard and they want more speed out of the offensive line for pulling and traps, a Pittsburgh staple under Bill Cowher.

Atlanta Falcons: While all the attention has been focused on QB Mike Vick’s off-field problems, new coach Bobby Petrino is revamping the Falcons from an all-running team to a more balanced one. Petrino likes the experience of backup QB Joey Harrington and he has veteran backup Chris Redman, who used to play for Petrino at Louisville and knows his offenses better than anyone. Petrino wants Vick to be more of a pocket passer.

The addition of FB Ovie Mughelli is a sign Petrino wants a power rushing attack behind a physical fullback and newcomer WR Joe Horn should upgrade what was a below average wideout corps. Petrino is changing their old zone-blocking scheme to a more traditional in-line blocking scheme and the offensive line is bigger. Rookie DE Jamaal Anderson was grabbed in the first round and the secondary got younger with former Auburn cornerback David Irons, who the Falcons think was a steal as a sixth-round pick.

Cleveland Browns: The 2007 Browns look like a double-edged sword. There was the excitement of the offseason, trading for RB Jamel Lewis, upgrading the offensive line with Wisconsin’s Joe Thomas (the No. 2 pick in the draft) and free agent LG Eric Steinbach, then trading for Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn when he fell to No. 22. GM Phil Savage and head coach Romeo Crennel feel they have a talented, balanced offense with these new pieces, plus TE >Kellen Winslow and WR Braylon Edwards.

However, were these moves made in desperation? And were they foolish ones? The Browns gave up their 2008 first-round pick for Quinn and we all know QBs take time to develop. And even first-round QBs can be busts (Joey Harrington, Akili Smith). We also don’t know if the offensive line is that much improved (31st in rushing in 2007) and they did nothing to improve a defense that was awful against the run (142 yds pg allowed).

The Browns have a new offensive coordinator in Rob Chudzinski. This is a young offense and Quinn looked tentative, indecisive and inaccurate early in camp. Crennel will play Charlie Frye, Quinn and Derek Anderson in preseason. And there is a mixed bag for rookie QBs receiving significant starts: Tim Couch (14), Kerry Collins (13), Ben Roethlisberger (13), Vince Young (13), Joey Harrington (12), Matt Leinart (11) and Kyle Boller (nine). While all the focus will be on the Browns new-look offense, I’m more concerned with the defense.

Carolina Panthers: Coach Jon Fox loves the ground game, but Carolina has made some interesting changes for 2007. Fox fired offensive coordinator Dan Henning and brings in Jeff Davidson to run the offense. Davidson has brought in zone-blocking schemes to the Panther offense, a dramatic change for a system that's been built around a power-running style.

In zone-blocking, offensive linemen are responsible for blocking any defender who appears in their zone, instead of focusing on one defender. The Broncos and Falcons have had success with the system, which features smaller, more athletic offensive linemen and can create running lanes on the inside and outside. Keep an eye in preseason on how Carolina adjusts as it will take time to learn the system. Fox has been one of the top coaches in preseason, with a 15-5 SU, 12-7-1 ATS August record.

Dallas Cowboys: WR Terrell Owens is still here, but QB Drew Bledsoe and Bill Parcells are gone. New head coach Wade Phillips takes over, replacing Parcells. He ran the Chargers defense last season. Phillips was chosen by teary-eyed owner Jerry Jones partly because he is one of the best 3-4 coaches in football and the Cowboys have loaded up on players for that scheme.

Remember that Phillips was blitz-happy with the Chargers last season and early reports out of the Dallas camp have mentioned how the Cowboys have been blitzing a lot, a departure from Parcells. The theme of the 2007 Dallas defense appears to be one of attack.

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