July 28, 2003|By Roch Kubatko | Roch Kubatko,SUN STAFF
TORONTO - This time, Rodrigo Lopez didn't exhibit the slightest trace of disgust when manager Mike Hargrove left the dugout and began his walk toward the mound. Lopez didn't snap his head, turn his back, grip the ball as if trying to make it explode before his temper.
His body language wasn't bad yesterday - just his pitching.
Matched up against Toronto's Roy Halladay, who brought his best stuff, Lopez took a worse beating than a Mike Tyson antagonist at 3 a.m. He couldn't escape the fourth inning, or the Blue Jays' relentless assault, and the Orioles completed the series with a 10-1 loss at SkyDome.
Working on three days' rest, Halladay had enough energy to hold down the Orioles and count the number of decisions he's won in succession. There aren't enough fingers. He'll have to remove a shoe.
Halladay has rattled off 15 straight victories since beginning the year 0-2, tying Roger Clemens' 1998 franchise record. He hasn't lost in his past 19 starts. No other pitcher in baseball can match his win total.
No other Oriole besides Brian Roberts got a hit off him through five innings, an infield hit in the fourth.
Brook Fordyce singled with two outs in the sixth after Halladay snared his line drive, the Orioles' hardest-hit ball, to end the third. Those were the only hits off him in seven shutout innings.
"Going in," Fordyce said, "I thought we were going to have a closer game."
The Orioles' lone run came on a Larry Bigbie homer in the eighth off Aquilino Lopez. Bigbie was recalled from Triple-A Ottawa after Saturday's game.
Halladay threw only 68 pitches while improving to 9-2 lifetime against the Orioles. He was 4-0 with a 0.93 ERA against them last season, and has won his past seven starts against the Orioles.
"He has great movement and great location," said first baseman Jeff Conine.
"Even when he makes a mistake over the white part of the plate, it's moving one way or the other, and it just seems to move off the sweet spot of your bat."
Halladay didn't need to be perfect, or anything close to it. The Blue Jays sent 11 batters to the plate in the fourth inning and scored seven runs, and any hint of a pitcher's duel went through the open roof.
"He pitched ahead, got a lot of ground balls, a lot of low-pitch count innings, and got those runs early. That helped," Hargrove said.
Lopez couldn't get the final out before leaving. He was charged with eight runs for the third time this season, though only six were earned in a June 26 no-decision in Toronto.
A 15-game winner last season, Lopez is 3-6 with a 6.02 ERA. He hasn't completed five innings in his past two starts.
"I think Rodrigo is putting a lot of pressure on himself now, trying to get back to the way he was last year," Hargrove said. "We've talked to him about it and we'll continue to talk to him. Rodrigo has to understand that he has good stuff and he has to trust it. He doesn't have to be nasty all the time to get people out. Every pitcher goes through that. Right now it's his turn."
Said Lopez: "I have to be more consistent. I know it won't be the same season as it was last year. But I've got enough starts left, and I think it's just a little adjustment and everything will be fine."
He couldn't argue with Hargrove's decision to remove him yesterday.
Lopez didn't like coming out of Tuesday's game against Texas with a 7-5 lead and needing only one out for the decision. Though he didn't say anything about it after the game, his actions on the mound spoke volumes.
But when you give up eight runs and throw 91 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, it's wise to just hand over the ball.
"It was a little bit mechanics and little bit my focus," said Lopez, who is 0-3 with an 11.58 ERA at SkyDome. "The last inning I threw, I wasn't that focused like I was the first two innings. It was probably a little bit of frustration that I couldn't hit my spots and trying to figure out what adjustments I had to make. I probably started to think too much and you're not allowed to make your pitches."
Carlos Delgado came within a triple of the cycle, an opportunity denied when manager Carlos Tosca pinch-hit for him in the seventh. Delgado again rattled the windows of the center-field restaurant with his 30th home run, the ball traveling an estimated 453 feet. He became the first Toronto player with 30 or more homers in seven consecutive seasons.
Leadoff hitter Reed Johnson batted for the fourth time in the fifth inning.
Not quite at the point of exhaustion, he lined a run-scoring single off Travis Driskill to increase the lead to 9-0.
The outcome already decided, Hargrove replaced Deivi Cruz with Rule 5 shortstop Jose Morban in the sixth inning, giving the rookie a closer view of Vernon Wells' leadoff homer. Wells extended his hitting streak to 14 games.
Orioles center fielder Luis Matos continued his own streak. For the second time in the series, he was called out for interfering with Blue Jays catcher Greg Myers, which nullified Roberts' stolen base.
"You usually don't see that twice in one year from the same guy," Hargrove said.
