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TORONTO — On Tuesday night, A.J. Burnett found himself in a dentist's chair, having an emergency root canal.
Last night at the Rogers Centre, it only felt like getting teeth pulled as Burnett went from one end of the pitching spectrum to the other but still won in a wild 9-8 victory by the Toronto Blue Jays over the Baltimore Orioles.
"I didn't deserve the win," Burnett said bluntly after the game, in which the Blue Jays gave their talented but erratic right-hander an 8-1 lead after five innings only to see it nearly all unravel when Baltimore scored six in the sixth.
All the runs were charged to Burnett and it cut a seemingly comfortable advantage to a suddenly tenuous 8-7 nail-biter.
Jays pitcher A.J. Burnett throws a pitch to the Baltimore Orioles during the second inning. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)
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- Baltimore Orioles
- Toronto Blue Jays
- A.J. Burnett
- Jesse Carlson
- David Eckstein
- Rich Harden
- Ramon Hernandez
- Aubrey Huff
- Nick Markakis
- Dustin McGowan
- Kevin Millar
- Garrett Olson
- John Parrish
- Alex Rios
- Scott Rolen
- B.J. Ryan
- Brian Tallet
- Vernon Wells
"I just got in a little rut there, pitching not normally how I would, getting behind when I wasn't throwing the hook for strikes and they sat on the fastball when they needed to," said Burnett, 9-8. "That's basically what happened. "I was dominant early and then got quite embarrassing toward the end."
It was painful, but perhaps not as painful as the root canal Burnett said he endured late Tuesday night. Yesterday morning he was back before the dentist, receiving a filling.
"I was all numbed up for a while," Burnett said. "It wasn't fun. It wore off in time, luckily. It didn't bother me at all."
Burnett also insists he hasn't been bothered by the trade rumours concerning him.
"I'm not reading them, I'm not listening to nothing, I'm not talking to nobody, man," he said. "I'm here, these guys know I'm here. I'm proud to be here."
What bothered Burnett was his inability to finish off what he started against Baltimore, when he was so dominant early, strangling the Orioles on just two hits and one run over five innings.
The offence finally responded, erupting for seven runs in a bat-around fourth inning that provided Toronto with a commanding 7-1 lead.
David Eckstein and Alex Rios each batted in two runs during the deluge, Toronto's highest-scoring inning this season.
The Jays added what, at the time, appeared to be an inconsequential run in the fifth when Gregg Zaun walked and scored on an Adam Lind double that made the score 8-1.
But when Baltimore tattooed Burnett for six runs in the sixth, highlighted by a three-run homer by Adam Jones that chased the Toronto pitcher from the game, Zaun's run was suddenly the difference.
The Jays made things a little cozier in the sixth when Vernon Wells scored on a sharp single to left field by Scott Rolen that gave them a two-run margin.
After the inning, Wells left the game with a left leg cramp and Rios moved from right field to cover centre. The move paid off in the seventh when Rios gathered in a hit by Luke Scott and threw a one-hop laser to catcher Rod Barajas, who just got the tag on for the third out on Huff, who was trying to score from second.
"That was two great plays right there," Toronto manager Cito Gaston said.
The bullpen then took over and saved Burnett's hide, although not without some nervous moments.
Closer B.J. Ryan came on in the ninth to protect the two-run lead and surrendered a two-out solo home run to Nick Markakis before walking Aubrey Huff.
Ryan then got Kevin Millar to fly out to centre field to earn his 17th save of the year.
With Dustin McGowan headed for the disabled list with a tear in his rotator cuff, the Jays have called up Brian Wolfe from Triple-A Syracuse to fill his spot on the roster.
Gaston said that Brian Tallet, a middle-relief pitcher, will take McGowan's next scheduled start on Sunday against the New York Yankees, who begin a three-game set in Toronto on Friday.
