A couple of sloppy sliders cost the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday, turning a tie game into a 5-2 loss that highlighted some of the reasons why the team has taken up residence in the AL East division basement.
The first hanging slider was delivered on a 2-2 count by right-hander Jason Berken to Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vernon Wells with one out in the eighth inning. It became the 13th home run of the season for Wells and gave the Blue Jays a 3-2 lead.
"You make a mistake like that and chances are he's going to make you pay," Berken said. "I threw a slider to him and he hit it out."
The second damaging slider in the eighth was thrown by left-hander Alberto Castillo, who had been brought in to face Lyle Overbay with a runner on. It became the second home run of the game and the sixth of the season for the Blue Jays first baseman.
It was the second loss in a row for the struggling Orioles (15-35) in their three-game series with the Blue Jays (29-22), a series that ends Sunday.
Baltimore pitchers allowed four home runs, including two by Chris Tillman, who was called up from triple-A for the start. He allowed a homer to Overbay in the second and to Aaron Hill in the sixth in a six-hit effort over 5 2/3 innings.
Berken took over from Tillman in the sixth after Jose Bautista's two-out double and struck out Alex Gonzalez. He pitched around two seventh-inning walks.
But he couldn't escape the home run ball that has been the Blue Jays' trademark this year.
"It was location," Berken said. "The slider was over the plate. Vernon's a good off-speed hitter in the strike zone. I was trying to put it out of the zone and I didn't. Usually when you get a slider up they go a long way and that one did."
After Wells homered, Berken struck out Bautista and gave up a single by Gonzalez that brought Castillo in and his first pitch put the game out of reach.
"Berken does a heck of a job but then gets Vernon in a count where perhaps he's going to chase," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. "He showed earlier in the game that if you get ahead of him he might chase either up or out of the strike zone and we throw a hanging slider and he hits it in the second deck."
Meanwhile, the Orioles have scored only twice in the first two games of the series.
"I really have run out of things to say," Trembley said. "I've juggled the lineup, I've put different guys in there. We have really prepared our guys as best we possibly can and it just hasn't happened for us."