Baltimore Orioles beat Toronto Blue Jays 2-0

Right-hander Jeremy Guthrie held the Toronto Blue Jays to three hits over seven innings while Vladimir Guerrero and Nick Markakis drove in the runs for the Baltimore Orioles in 2-0 victory on Friday.

Guthrie (7-17) also passed 1,000 career innings pitched when Yunel Escobar hit into a double play for the first two outs of the sixth inning.

Jim Johnson, trying for his fourth save, walked Jose Bautista to lead off the ninth, but got the next three batters on groundouts to end the game.

Left-hander Brett Cecil (4-9) gave up two runs, one unearned, in 7 2-3 innings while striking out nine.

The first run of the game came on Guerrero’s two-out single in the sixth and was unearned after an error by second baseman Kelly Johnson on a failed double play attempt.

J.J. Hardy grounded to short, but Johnson’s throw was over first base which allowed the shortstop to reach second. Hardy scored on Guerrero’s single to left.

The Orioles scored again in the eighth when Markakis beat the throw to first on a double play attempt on his grounder to second. That allowed Ryan Adams, who led off the inning with a single, to score from third. His hit was followed by Robert Andino’s sacrifice and Hardy’s single.

Cecil had his seventh strikeout of the game by his first batter in the fifth inning when Mark Reynolds struck out on a foul tip on a change-up.

Guthrie has been a victim of poor run support this season. In his past 20 starts coming into the game, the Orioles scored a total of 68 runs when he was in the game, an average of 3.4. And in his first eight starts, the Orioles scored 10 runs while he was in the game, an average of 1.3.

The Orioles had not scored a run while Guthrie was in the game in six of his 28 starts before Friday. That includes three starts in a row from May 2-13.

The Blue Jays threatened with two out in the seventh on Adam Lind’s second hit of the game and a walk to Brett Lawrie. But Guthrie struck out Johnson.

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