David Price holds O's to one run as Blue Jays even series

TORONTO - O's pitchers held down the high-scoring Toronto Blue Jays last night but could not do it two days in a row. The Orioles also had their own problems at bat against Blue Jays ace David Price.

After scoring 17 runs their past two games, the O's offense was held to one this afternoon in a 5-1 loss to Toronto in front of a sellout crowd of 46,373 at Rogers Centre.

With their 13th loss in 16 games, the Orioles fall to 65-70 for the season. They are 6-8 against Toronto, 28-27 versus the American League East and 27-43 on the road.

The O's just could not get much going against Price, who pitched around a leadoff single in the second and one-out double in the third. He retired nine in a row from the fourth through the sixth. Down 5-0, the O's ended his shutout bid in the seventh. Price walked two ahead of a Caleb Joseph RBI single to left. But he then fanned Junior Lake and Paul Janish to end that threat.

Price gave up just three hits and the one run over seven innings, with four walks and eight strikeouts. He improved to 14-5 with an ERA of 2.43 for the year. In 19 career starts against the Orioles, Price is 8-4 with an ERA of 2.65.

Mike Wright was on the mound for the Orioles, making his seventh major league start. He got the first two outs in the first and threw a 97 mph heater past Jose Bautista. But Bautista then smoked a slider into the left-field seats for his 32nd homer and a 1-0 lead.

Toronto added single runs in the third and fourth as Bautista doubled in their second run, with Ben Revere's single making it 3-0. The Jays added two in the fifth off reliever Jason Garcia. Working with a pitch limit and on three days' rest, Wright went four innings, allowing seven hits and three runs with one walk and four strikeouts. Wright took the loss to fall to 2-4 with an ERA of 5.19.

Toronto won for the 11th time in 14 games, and is 24-6 since Aug. 1 and 77-58 for the season. The Blue Jays are 46-25 at home.

In the series finale on Sunday afternoon, Chris Tillman (9-10, 4.87 ERA) faces right-hander Marco Estrada (11-8, 3.16 ERA).