Blue Jays

I had separate conversations earlier this offseason with a scout from a rival team and a player agent that basically intimated the same thing: The industry was watching what the Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays would do this winter because they are viewed as the potential new guard in the AL East with the New York Yankees aging, the Boston Red Sox rebuilding and the Tampa Bay Rays hampered by payroll. The agent said Baltimore and Toronto could be easier sells this year to clients because the sense is that both teams are in a position to win now and for a few more years if they make the right choices.

TORONTO - From the day early this spring when Orioles manager Buck Showalter decided to place Nolan Reimold in the leadoff spot, he told Reimold he didn't need him to become a different player because of his new place atop the batting order. “I don't want him to start being chop-shop,” Showalter said. “I want him to be Nolan Reimold and get deep into some counts, and when it's time to square up a ball and do something with it, go ahead and do it. Don't change anything.

The Orioles are going for a three-game sweep against the Blue Jays tonight at Camden Yards on an overcast day here at Oriole Park. The Orioles (11-7) enter the night with a share of the AL East lead with Tampa Bay. Orioles left-hander Brian Matusz is still looking to end a personal 12-game losing streak, the longest active streak in the majors, tonight against Toronto right-hander Drew Hutchinson, who is making his second major league start. A lot going on around the Orioles clubhouse today: -- We had our first glimpse of injured left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada, who was in the clubhouse today, since he returned to Baltimore.

For a starting pitcher coming off a poor outing, the four days leading up to his next start are the most brutal. There's plenty of time to think, to replay the mistakes over in your mind, to overanalyze. So these past four days were rough for Orioles left-hander Joe Saunders. In his first start for his new team Wednesday, Saunders allowed seven runs - six of them earned - in a seven-run loss to the White Sox. “You think about it in your head between starts,” Saunders said.

Give Toronto Blue Jays rookie Henderson Alvarez some credit for not discriminating by level. He has now beaten easily the Orioles and the Bowie Baysox in the same month, though, to be honest, he did have a little more trouble taming the Orioles' Double-A affiliate. On Wednesday night, in just his fifth big league start, Toronto's 21-year-old Venezuelan right-hander was three singles short of perfect for eight innings in a 13-0 dismantling of the Orioles before an announced 14,211 at Camden Yards.

Baseball The Toronto Blue Jays recalled left-handed pitcher Brett Cecil (Maryland) from Triple-A Las Vegas and said the 24-year-old will return to the rotation Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Cecil went 8-2 with a 5.26 ERA in 12 starts since being optioned to the Pacific Coast League team; he was 1-2 record and 6.86 ERA in four starts with the Blue Jays. Golf McCarthy wins Maryland State Junior Amateur Denny McCarthy , 18, of Argyle Country Club closed with a 3-under-par 67, and his 36-hole total of 136 at his home course brought a second successive Maryland State Junior Amateur golf title.

Depending on the day, Orioles manager Buck Showalter has as many as eight different starting options for his musical-chairs starting rotation.  And rookie Steve Johnson has been plucked out of the mix to start the first game of Monday's doubleheader against the Blue Jays at Camden Yards. Johnson hasn't made a start since a game against the Blue Jays on Aug. 25, pitching six innings of two-run, four-hit ball with seven strikeouts and two walks in a 8-2 win over Toronto. Since that game against Toronto, Johnson has thrown five straight scoreless relief appearances, allowing just three hits in 11 innings.

It's getting harder and harder these days to decipher what statistics are the most embarrassing, what numbers best exhibit how awful the 2010 Orioles have played. There are so many to choose from, but here is one that is going to be very tough to beat. With their 8-2 loss to Toronto on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, the Orioles are now 20 1/2 games behind the Blue Jays for fourth place in the American League East. Only two other teams in baseball -- the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Arizona Diamondbacks -- entered Tuesday more than 20 games out of first place.

The Orioles couldn't get out of Canada any faster Wednesday night. The first leg of their three-city, nine-game road trip couldn't have gone any worse. With their starting pitching reeling and questions about the health of two of their top players, being swept out of Rogers Centre was just the beginning. After winning five of six games against the Blue Jays last month, including two of three in a mid-April series here - the once-high-flying Orioles now have their wings clipped.