Mora Breaks HR Drought, Lifts Orioles Past Jays In 12 Innings
POSTED: 11:10 pm PDT July 11, 2009
Baltimore, MD -- (Sports Network) - Melvin Mora hit his first homer in more than two months, clubbing a solo shot in the 12th inning, as the Baltimore Orioles edged the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3, in the middle test of a three-game set from Camden Yards.Luke Scott also slugged a solo home run for the Orioles, who have won three of their last four games. Aubrey Huff and Matt Wieters drove in a run each in the win. Mark Hendrickson (5-4) got the win after tossing a scoreless 12th inning. Jesse Carlson (1-4) was tagged with the loss.
Marco Scutaro and Aaron Hill both had two hits and an RBI for the Blue Jays, who have dropped 11 of their last 14 games. Scott Rolen drove in the other run in defeat. Baltimore's Rich Hill went six-plus innings and gave up two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts to just one walk. Ricky Romero was tagged for three runs on seven hits in eight innings for the Blue Jays. Trailing by a run in the eighth, the visitors staged a rally. Scutaro was hit by Jim Johnson to start the inning. He moved to second on Hill's groundout, and it was first and third when Adam Lind singled to left field. Rolen then stroked a sac fly to deep left which tied the game before Vernon Wells whiffed to end the inning. Ty Wigginton had a one-out single off Jason Frasor in the ninth, but Scott swung and missed at the third strike and Mora grounded to short to send the game to extra innings. With one out in the 12th, Mora smacked the first pitch he saw from Carlson over the fence in right field to give the O's a 4-3 victory. It ended a 50- game homer drought for Mora, who clubbed his third long ball of the season and first since May 7. It was his first homer in 189 at-bats. Scott robbed Wells of a homer in the top of the second. The Orioles got on the board, 1-0, in the second inning. Wigginton had a one- out double and moved to third on Scott's groundout. Mora then walked and Wieters hit a fly ball to center that Wells slid for. However, the ball bounced off his glove and dropped in to allow Wigginton to score and put both runners in scoring position. Robert Andino struck out looking to end the inning. Scott's homer in the fourth inning gave the hosts a 2-0 lead, but the Jays rallied in the fifth. Kevin Millar led off with a double and, two outs later, scored on Scutaro's two-bagger. Hill followed with the game-tying RBI single to left. Back-to-back doubles from Nick Markakis and Huff in the sixth gave Baltimore a 3-2 edge. Game Notes Toronto was without manager Cito Gaston, who has missed two games while attending his sister's funeral. He is due back for the series finale on Sunday. Bench coach Brian Butterfield is managing the team in his absence...Romero came in riding a four-game winning streak. The last time the southpaw took the mound he led the Blue Jays to a 7-6 victory over New York. In his lone start against Baltimore, which came earlier this season, the hard- throwing lefty was hammered by the Orioles, as Baltimore scored five runs on 11 hits against Romero in just 5 1/3 innings of duty...Hill had allowed at least six earned runs in his last three outings coming in and had failed to pitch five full innings in five of his previous 10 starts...The Blue Jays have won four of eight versus the Orioles this season, but Baltimore swept a three- game set from them the last time the teams met at Camden Yards in late May...Scott has a career-best 11-game hitting streak...Toronto went 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine men.
Copyright 2009 Courtesy of The Sports Network.




