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TORONTO - Brad Mills' recent stint with the Toronto Blue Jays lasted for just one start, but he made the most of it.
The 25-year-old left-hander pitched a two-hitter over seven innings to pick up the first major-league win of his career Wednesday as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Baltimore Orioles 5-0.
The victory before a crowd of 17,041 at Rogers Centre gave the Blue Jays a 12-0 record against the Orioles this season.
Mills (1-0), who was called up for a spot start on Tuesday, was returned to triple-A Las Vegas after the game. The Blue Jays are expected to activate outfielder Travis Snider, who was on the disabled list with a wrist injury, for Friday's game against Cleveland.
Mills was 0-1 with a 14.09 earned-run average in his first two major-league starts last year, both against the Philadelphia Phillies.
"Last year didn't go the way I wanted it to," Mills said, "and so it's great to come up here and kind of prove to myself that I can pitch here and get outs here. I know I can pitch here."
Mills didn't have a lot of run support to work with. He defending a 1-0 lead after the Jays scored an unearned run on Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie in the second.
That was the only run allowed by Guthrie (4-11), who allowed six hits over seven innings. The Blue Jays scored four runs in the eighth against relievers Koji Uehara and Will Ohman in Lyle Overbay's three-run homer and Adam Lind's RBI single.
Mills, who walked three and struck out four, was called up from triple A for the spot start to fill a temporary vacancy in the rotation that resulted from last Friday's rainout in Detroit followed by a make-up doubleheader on Sunday.
"We're getting pretty deep in pitchers, which is good," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said.
Orioles interim manager Juan Samuel referred to Mills as crafty.
"He doesn't have an overpowering fastball," Samuel said, "and to be successful he needs to change speeds and keep the ball out of the strike zone, make sure the guys chase when he's ahead of the count and we helped him do that tonight."
It can be easy for a young pitcher to get out of his game when he first pitches in the majors. Mills faced that problem last year.
"There's a tendency to speed the game up," Mills said. "Everything goes real fast. You're sweating a lot, your head’s spinning."
This time he was conscious of that.
"I really worked today at trying to slow it down, and tell myself it’s the same game down in triple-A as it is here and if I throw strikes, I'll get outs," he said. "That was the biggest thing, try to keep it slow."
He feels he got away with some pitches because he had the Orioles swinging.
"If you establish throwing strikes you get them in a swing mode and you don't have to throw perfect pitches because they're swinging and they get themselves out a lot," he said. "I got away with some pitches tonight because they got themselves out a lot."
Toronto opened the scoring when Corey Patterson botched his attempt to pick up the ball after Lind singled, allowing Vernon Wells to score from first base.
In the eighth, Lind singled against Ohman to score Jose Bautista who had doubled against Uehara. Aaron Hill was walked intentionally and Overbay homered.
After his two starts last year, Mills was returned on option to Las Vegas where he made one more start and pitched eight runless innings, allowing two hits while striking out seven.
This year at Las Vegas, Mills is 7-4 with a 4.13 ERA. He's been excellent after returning from a stint of the disabled list with a strained left shoulder, going 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA.
So the Blue Jays know where to look if they need pitching help.
"I just went out and tried to throw as many strikes as I could," Mills said. "I'm a three-pitch pitcher and I've got to go out and throw strikes with all three of my pitches to have success. So I just tried to keep it as simple as possible and throw all strikes."
Notes: The game started with the roof closed because of rain but it was opened in the second inning…The Orioles had first baseman Ty Wigginton back for Wednesday’s game. He sat out the first two games of the series serving a suspension for bumping umpire Gary Darling on July 22.…Snider hit the game-ending home run Wednesday in the 11th inning as double-A New Hampshire won 1-0 and he will rejoin the Blue Jays Friday. He has not played for Toronto since May 14 because of a sore wrist that put him on the disabled list….The Blue Jays have Thursday off before the Cleveland Indians visit Rogers Centre for a three-game series with Justin Masterson (3-9, 5.19 earned-run average) starting in Friday’s opener against Shaun Marcum (9-4, 3.36 ERA).
