TORONTO _ Heading into Thursday's series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays, Orioles manager Buck Showalter conceded he didn't know what to expect from right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez.
Jimenez was coming off his worst start of the year, battered for a season-high nine runs in a 2 1/3-inning shellacking at the Tampa Bay Rays. His fastball lost a tick in velocity, Showalter said, which extended the concern.
But if the past four seasons of watching Jimenez show anything, it's that you never quite know what to expect from him. His domination of the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Thursday night can be filed under the category of the unexpected.
Jimenez held the Blue Jays to just two hits over eight scoreless innings, leading the Orioles to a rare 2-0 low-scoring win.
The Orioles, who arrived in Canada only able to win games by outslugging their opponents, won two games in Toronto when scoring three runs or fewer, something they hadn't accomplished in 22 consecutive games before this series.
While the Orioles (39-39) are still teetering, they have begun to reverse their struggles on the road, winning back-to-back road series for the first time since their first trip of the season, when they took three of four at Rogers Centre and two of three at the Cincinnati Reds in mid-April.
After tying a modern-day record by allowing at least five runs in 20 straight games, the Orioles held the Blue Jays (37-41) to five total runs over the three-game series.
The Orioles return to Camden Yards having won four of six on their two-city road trip to face the Rays and Blue Jays, improving their record against American League East competition to 25-18.
Still, Thursday's game marked just the third time in the past 19 games that an Orioles starter logged at least six innings. Ironically enough, it is Jimenez _ who was bumped from the rotation last month before returning three starts ago � who has two of those three starts.
Jimenez matched the deepest start by an Orioles pitcher this season _ Wade Miley also went eight innings on April 20 in Cincinnati _ and allowed just three baserunners.
He opened the game retiring 13 of the first 14 batters he faced, the only base runner coming on No. 9 hitter Ryan Goins' two-out double in the third. After issuing a one-out walk to Troy Tulowitzki in the fifth, Jimenez retired 11 of the final 12 batters he faced. Kevin Pillar's double off the right-field fence with two outs in the eighth was the only base runner in that stretch.
Jimenez had his two-seam sinking fastball, slider and splitter working down in the zone, leading to 10 groundouts on the night.
Jimenez also recorded a season-high eight strikeouts, and seemed to miss more bats later in the game. Five of Jimenez's last 10 outs came by strikeout.
After entering the night averaging 4.7 walks per nine innings, Jimenez walked just one of the 27 batters he faced.
Despite his struggles, Jimenez has three of the Orioles' four deepest starts this season, going 7 2/3 innings against both the Washington Nationals and Reds.
