TORONTO - Away from St. Louis and with a chance for a fresh start in Toronto, Colby Rasmus would rather fly under the radar, but understands it's not part of his job description as a major league baseball player.
Given the way he struggled at the plate in his Toronto Blue Jays debut, the 24-year-old centre fielder must be appreciative of the work his new teammates did to take the spotlight off him in an 8-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles Thursday, before 16,152 at Rogers Centre.
The win was Toronto's 11th in their past 16 games and put them a game over .500 (53-52).
Edwin Encarnacion and Eric Thames—the latter bumped down to sixth in the lineup in with Rasmus penciled in at No. 2—each had a pair of RBIs, while Travis Snider rebounded from a four-strikeout performance Wednesday with two hits and bowled over Orioles catcher Matt Wieters to score Toronto's sixth run in the decisive four-run fourth.
Carlos Villanueva (6-2), despite giving up a pair of first-inning, solo homers to J.J. Hardy and Vladimir Guerrero, picked up the win for the Jays, while going five innings surrendering four runs on six hits with two walks and one strikeout.
Baltimore starter Brad Bergesen (2-7) took the loss for the Orioles (41-60) and failed to see the fourth inning after giving up six hits and six runs (four earned), thanks to some shoddy defence behind him.
As for Rasmus, acquired in Wednesday's three-team, 14-player blockbuster with the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox, the 2005 first-round draft pick (28th overall), received a nice ovation as he stepped to the plate in the first inning and then proceeded to pop up to short on the first pitch he saw.
In his second at-bat, Rasmus flied out to centre and then in the fourth inning he grounded out to short. In the fifth, he had a chance to do some damage with two out and runners on first and second, but struck out swinging on a 3-2 curveball from Orioles lefty Mark Hendrickson.
In his final at-bat of the night in the bottom of the eighth, he struck out swinging on three pitches.
But thanks to a balanced Toronto attack—seven Blue Jays starters reached base--Rasmus' rough debut proved inconsequential.
Encarnacion—who had three hits, a bases-loaded walk and finished a triple shy of the cycle—continues to tear the cover off the ball, while Yunel Escobar added a pair of hits and continues to lead all A.L. short stops in OBP (.490), hits (114) and batting average (.312).
P.J. Walters—acquired with Rasmus from St. Louis in Wednesday's trade, came on in relief for Villanueva in the sixth and pitched a scoreless inning giving up one walk with one strikeout. Casey Janssen and Frank Francisco each pitched a scoreless inning in relief. Jon Rauch pitched the ninth to close things out in a non-save situation and gave up a solo shot to Hardy—his 18th on the year and fourth in this series—to make the final 8-5.
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