Mark Trumbo and Adam Jones on playing at Rogers Centre

TORONTO - For a visiting player, Rogers Centre in Toronto can be a tough place to play. And that goes beyond simply facing a tough opponent.

As the Orioles open a big three-game series here tonight, a couple of players say the crowd here is as tough on visiting players as any place they play all year.

"You know, at least as a defender, you will hear a fair amount of taunts," Mark Trumbo said this afternoon. "That is just part of the deal here. It is going to be extremely loud. The energy is always as much as any you'll see in baseball and it's a nice challenge."

I asked center fielder Adam Jones how tough it is to play at Rogers Centre.

"I won't say tough, it's a great place to play," Jones said. "You have the atmosphere here, like a 10th man here. The 50-grand that come out there, they're strong. They yell a couple choice words, but they're into it. I know the Blue Jays players have to love it. A couple of years ago, there weren't too many fans here. They feed off it and we need to feed off it too."

With Toronto's loss to the Yankees last night, the Orioles moved to within a game of Toronto and the first American League wild card. Did the Blue Jays open the door for the Orioles?

"A win by the Orioles opens the door for the Orioles," Jones said. "We win and we control our own destiny. We worry about others, we will not be in that destiny. So we need to handle what we can handle and control what we can control. That's a cliché, and I'm not a cliché guy, but that is the truth with six games to go.

"This is the whole reason why you play. To come down to the last week of the season with something to play for. We're fighting for our lives to get into October."

Jones was asked how fun it is to play in big games this time of year.

"Well, we're playing with house money," he said. "We weren't supposed to be here. That was well documented by Pecota and all the experts. So we're playing with house money that is how we look at it, now let's go do something with it."

The Orioles send right-hander Kevin Gausman (8-11, 3.57 ERA) to the mound tonight. Gausman is 4-1 with a 1.83 ERA his last six starts, with four scoreless outings in that span

"We have all the confidence in the world in him," Trumbo said of Gausman. "He's pitched as well as anybody and gone deep into games. Really silenced some really good offenses. So I think we feel quite good with him out there."