Toronto

The Orioles have struggled mightily when playing the Blue Jays in Toronto over the past five seasons. The Orioles are 12-42 at Rogers Center since 2006, including a 16-game losing streak they snapped this season. They aren't alone, though; the Blue Jays are 12 games above .500 at home over the past season and a half. But according to an ESPN report, the Jays may have had an unfair home-field advantage in recent years. According to accusations from a handful of players on one American League team, the Blue Jays have been stealing signs from their competitors and relaying them to their hitters through a man dressed in white who stands in the bleachers at Rogers Centre.

Just last week, Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said pitching prospect Kevin Gausman was a starting rotation option for the future, but not the immediate present. But the 22-year-old right-hander will join the Orioles this week and is expected to make his major league debut Thursday night against the Toronto Blue Jays, according to multiple industry sources. The Orioles' first-round draft pick last June - the fourth-overall selection out of LSU - will make the jump from Double-A Bowie, where he is 2-4 with a 3.11 ERA in eight starts.

Orioles right-hander Tommy Hunter just might be his toughest critic, and over his past two starts, he's seen plenty of flaws. His fastball command hasn't been where it needs to be. He hasn't thrown enough first-pitch strikes. He's walking too many hitters and has yielded too many home runs. All assessments from Hunter himself, but Tuesday's end result was distinctly different than that seven-run loss a week ago in Chicago. On Tuesday, Hunter battled to give the Orioles six innings of one-run ball, giving way to a bullpen that sparkled despite being without closer Jim Johnson in a 2-1 win over the Blue Jays in front of an announced crowd of 11,058, the lowest home crowd since last August 30 against Toronto.

The moment seemed perfectly scripted for Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis. With Monday night's game against the Toronto Blue Jays on the line on a chilly night at Camden Yards, the steadiest of the Orioles' bats resonated calm at the plate. Down to his last strike, Markakis delivered the Orioles their second walk-off win in five games as his game-winning, two-out, bases-loaded single off Toronto reliever Aaron Loup gave the Orioles a 2-1 win over the Blue Jays and their fourth win in their past five games.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Sunday he believed his team's toughest game of their six-game road trip would be Monday's series opener in Toronto. Monday's 1 p.m. game will be the team's third straight afternoon game - a rarity. And it's also unheard of  that you come into a new city and play the first game of the series during the day. Sometime uncommon can lead to uncomfortable. But truly the test is replacing the atmosphere and excitement of this weekend's three games at Yankee Stadium with the antisceptic north-of-the-border feel of the Rogers Center.

About 48 hours ago, I wrote on this blog that the Orioles' weekend series against the Blue Jays in Toronto was more pivotal than the Yankees' sweep of the Birds earlier this week. For them to talk about marked improvements in this team, they first had to show they could beat the Jays at the Rogers Centre, a place where the Orioles have lost 29 of their last 34 coming into the series. You have to give the Orioles credit. They were down in the late innings both Friday and Saturday, only to provide some eighth and ninth inning heroics to take the first two games of the series against the Blue Jays.

Current plans call for the movie version of the Broadway hit Hair- spray to be filmed in both Baltimore and Toronto, an executive with New Line Cinema confirmed yesterday. "It is our intention to shoot in Baltimore and Toronto," said Mark Kaufman, an executive vice president with New Line. "It could be a day in Baltimore, it could be a week in Baltimore. ... That has been our intention from the start." He said details of the film's budget, which will dictate where Hairspray will be shot, are being worked out. Open auditions for several roles in the film will be held nationwide beginning next month in Atlanta.

Site: Memorial StadiumTime: 7:30Line: Baltimore by 10 1/2TV/Radio: Ch. 2/WJFK (1300 AM)Records: Toronto 2-4, Baltimore 4-2 in Eastern DivisionLast week: Toronto lost to British Columbia, 54-39; Baltimore beat Hamilton, 30-15.First meeting: Baltimore topped Toronto, 28-20, in the season opener July 7 at SkyDome as Donald Igwebuike kicked four field goals and Tracy Ham threw for two touchdowns.On the sidelines: In his 13th season as a CFL head coach, Bob O'Billovich has a career record of 106-103-3.

After getting swept by the New York Yankees this week to end Baltimore's season-opening, six-game homestand, the Orioles need to get away, right? Maybe not. The Orioles will open their first road trip of the season - a three-city, 10-game swing - in the House of Horrors that's otherwise known as the Rogers Centre. Maybe the ghost of Cito Gaston still haunts the O's. Maybe it's years of lingering hangover from the end of the 1989 “Why Not?” season. Whatever it is, the Orioles have been horrible north of the border.

The Orioles haven’t won a game in Toronto in 22 months, a crazy road losing skid that continued Tuesday night when the Blue Jays won in extra innings, 6-5, on Adam Lind’s walk-off home run. Of course, the Blue Jays have had their number at Camden Yards, too, but the losses at Rogers Centre have become automatic. " We have had our struggles for a while . Period," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "We don't look at some place [being tough to play at]. Our guys, other than going through customs here, enjoy playing here.

There's no question that the Toronto Blue Jays have made the most noise throughout baseball this offseason - and that's pushed them from a fourth-place finish in 2012 to division favorites heading into this season. They've added three strong, veteran starting pitchers in R.A. Dickey, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle. They've added a perennial all-star and one of my favorite players to watch in shortstop Jose Reyes, as well as outfielder Melky Cabrera and infielder/outfielder Emilio Bonifacio to a lineup that already included Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus.

If this is December, then there are a lot of Orioles fans who are wondering the same thing. Why is it that every year at this time, the other American League East teams do their holiday shopping at Lord &Taylor and the Orioles seem to do most of theirs at the dollar store? It's a fair question, considering that the Toronto Blue Jays are on a spending spree of such magnitude that it might impact the currency exchange rate between the United States and Canada, and the Boston Red Sox are buying up average players for $13 million apiece per season.

Major Indoor Soccer League Blast's Ferdinand is Player of the Week Baltimore Blast midfielder Max Ferdinand was named the Major Indoor Soccer League's Player of the Week on Tuesday. Ferdinand scored nine points in two matches as the Blast earned road victories against the Wichita Wings and Missouri Comets to improve its record to 7-0. Ferdinand has 23 points this season, trailing teammate Machel Millwood by a point for the league lead. Joining Ferdinand on the MISL Team of the Week is teammate Troy Hernandez , who made 22 saves in a 12-4 victory over the Comets.

Witnessed an interesting moment in the Orioles' media lunch room in the middle of Monday's second game. Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette walked in and Toronto assistant GM Tony LaCava was already in the room. LaCava, as you may remember, was offered the Orioles GM job last offseason and turned it down. So the Orioles went back to the drawing board, interviewed a few more candidates and ended up with Duquette. There were a lot of theories as to why LaCava turned it down, but his response was that he really liked what was going on in Toronto and wanted to stay.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Sunday he believed his team's toughest game of their six-game road trip would be Monday's series opener in Toronto. Monday's 1 p.m. game will be the team's third straight afternoon game - a rarity. And it's also unheard of  that you come into a new city and play the first game of the series during the day. Sometime uncommon can lead to uncomfortable. But truly the test is replacing the atmosphere and excitement of this weekend's three games at Yankee Stadium with the antisceptic north-of-the-border feel of the Rogers Center.

TORONTO -- The Orioles have purchased the contract of left-handed reliever Zach Phillips from Triple-A Norfolk before this afternoon's series opener in Toronto. Phillips was told before Sunday's Tides game that he was being recalled and arrived in Toronto on Sunday night. Phillips will give the Orioles a third left-handed reliever for the September playoff push, joining Brian Matusz and Randy Wolf, both of whom have spent most of their careers as starters. Phillips has actually been better against right-handed hitters this season, holding them to a .237 mark, but his numbers against lefties have improved in the second half of the season.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Tommy Hunter made a solid return to the major-league mound Wednesday, but the Orioles lost 6-3 to Toronto, thanks to a four-run, ninth-inning rally by the Blue Jays. The Orioles took a 3-2 lead into the ninth when reliever Pedro Strop, who had been good most of the spring, unraveled. He retired just one batter while allowing two hits, a walk, a wild pitch, four runs (one earned) and an error. He had allowed just one earned run in his first five innings this spring. Brian Bocock's two-run single against Stu Pomeranz -- who replaced Strop -- put the game out of reach.

Never, perhaps, has a contender been more excited about trading a last-place opponent for a first-place opponent.That stack of Indians jokes on the tip of your tongue? Swallow 'em. They won't play in this town anymore."You figure you should take two of three from Cleveland," Randy Milligan said yesterday. "I tell you. That was brutal."Brutal? Well, getting swept at home by the Indians in the middle of a pennant race certainly would have qualified as brutal, but the Orioles huffed and puffed and finally blew them down at least once yesterday at Camden Yards, winning the last game of the series in 10 jumpy innings.

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.

Right-hander Tommy Hunter , optioned to Double-A Bowie on Aug. 24, is expected to join the Orioles in Toronto on Monday and be activated before the team's afternoon series opener against the Blue Jays. Hunter threw a scoreless ninth inning for the Baysox on Saturday night, earning the save. Showalter, who said Hunter was clocked at 96 mph, said he will be used as a reliever for the stretch run with the Orioles. "Tommy's pitched some big games for us starting this year," Showalter said.