Escobar with a Slam as Toronto completes sweep

The Orioles are still looking for their first win of the year vs. the Toronto Blue Jays. Yunel Escobar's first homer of the year was a second-inning Grand Slam off Brian Matusz, as the Jays whipped the O's 10-1 Sunday afternoon to complete a three-game sweep. The Jays are now 9-0 on this season vs. the Orioles and have won three straight series vs. Baltimore for the first time since they won four straight from April of 1999 to May of 2000. The Orioles start the second half 0-3 and scored just five runs in this series after sweeping four games and scoring 23 runs at Texas to end the first half. Brian Matusz gave up the Slam and lasted just 1 2/3 innings, allowing six runs and five hits in the shortest outing of his 27-start career. Matusz has allowed 10 ER over 4 2/3 in his past two starts since pitching seven shutout innings at Boston on July 4th. Escobar, who went 3 for 4 with 5 RBI, had gone 270 at bats on the year between Atlanta and Toronto without a homer until connecting in the second. Adam Jones came up with an RBI single in the first to plate the only O's run on the day. The Orioles have scored just 16 runs on the year vs. Toronto pitching and just 10 in the last eight games between the clubs. Toronto has out-scored the Birds 48 to 16 on the season and out-homered them 18 to 1. The O's went just 1 for 15 today batting with runners in scoring position and just 5 for 33 (.152) in the series. The Birds' ten-game homestand continues Monday at 7:05 vs. Tampa with Chris Tillman (1-3, 5.64) pitching vs. Wade Davis (6-9, 4.69). More post-game notes after Sunday's O's loss to the Jays: *Josh Bell went 2 for 4 with a pair of singles for his first career multi-hit game. *When Nick Markakis doubled in the third inning, he became the first player in the Majors this year to reach 30 doubles. He went 3 for 5 with two doubles on the day and has recorded six doubles over his last seven games. Today was his 8th three-hit game of the year and he is batting .349 over his past 27 games. *Even though Toronto leads the Majors with 140 homers, Escobar's Slam was the first by a Blue Jay this year. Toronto was the last AL team to hit a Grand Slam this season. *Escobar drove in five runs, matching the most by any O's opponent on the year. New York's Nick Swisher drove in five vs. Baltimore on June 8th. *The last time the O's lost nine in a row to a single opponent to begin the season was in 1988 when the O's lost their first nine against Cleveland. *Matusz ties teammate Jeremy Guthrie for the league lead with ten losses. *The attendance was 14,032 and the O's passed the million mark on the year. They have drawn 1,007,808 over 44 dates for an average game attendance of 22,905. *Adam Jones had two hits and is batting .324-8-23 over his last 36 games.