Currently: - Game info: 7:35 pm EDT Fri Apr 23, 2004
- TV: RSN, CSN
Off to the worst start in team history, the Toronto Blue Jays hope to post consecutive wins for the first time this season when they begin a three-game set with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.
On Thursday, the Blue Jays ended a five-game losing streak with a 7-3 win over the Boston Red Sox and Curt Schilling. Toronto was the first team to start 0-8 at home since the 1992 Detroit Tigers.
Chris Gomez hit a tiebreaking grand slam off Schilling in the eighth inning and drove in five runs.
“It’s just nice to win a game. I don’t care where it is, if it’s China or any place,” Toronto manager Carlos Tosca said. To earn their fifth win of the season, though, the Blue Jays need to fare much better against starter Eric Dubose, who shut down Toronto in Baltimore’s 7-0 win on Sunday. The 27-year-old gave up three hits—all singles—while striking out five and walking one in seven innings.
Baltimore, which swept the Blue Jays last weekend at SkyDome, has won six of seven, including a 7-6 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Thursday.
Rafael Palmeiro homered to ignite Baltimore’s second comeback of the game, Miguel Tejada had a season-high 3 RBIs.
Palmeiro led off the sixth with his second home run of the season, his 102nd homer at Camden Yards, the most by any player, but his first since May 23, 1999, when he played for the Texas Rangers.
“I think teams are going to start to notice that if we can get into our bullpen with a lead, we’re going to have a lot of wins,” Palmeiro said.
The bullpen pitched four hitless innings in relief of struggling starter Kurt Ainsworth. Baltimore relievers are 5-1 with a 1.69 ERA through 18 games and have held opponents to a .180 average
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