Blue Jays sweep Baltimore with 5-2 win

TORONTO - Toronto manager Cito Gaston doesn't plan to spend his last remaining games with the Blue Jays watching his players get hit with pitches.

"I'm only here for a few more days but I'm not going to put up with it," said Gaston, who will retire at the end of the season, after major-league home run leader Jose Bautista was hit twice Sunday in a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

"I'm not going to put up with that."

The second time Bautista was hit on the forearm in the fifth inning, home plate umpire Bill Welke ejected Orioles reliever Alfredo Simon and manager Buck Showalter before a crowd of 17,831 at Rogers Centre.

The teams had been warned after Orioles starter Rick VandenHurk (0-1) had hit Bautista with a pitch in the third and Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum (13-8) had grazed Luke Scott with a pitch in the fourth.

"The first one I don't think was intentional," Marcum, who allowed an unearned run and four hits over seven innings, said of the pitches that hit Bautista who has 52 home runs. "The second one I thought was pretty horse (bleep). Luckily it didn't get him in the head or anywhere bad."

"After there's a warning and the catcher sets up outside to get hit, it's pretty obvious what they're doing," Bautista said.

The teams don't play again this season after John McDonald drove in three runs to give the Blue Jays a three-game sweep of the Orioles and a 15-3 advantage in the season series.

"Who knows what might happen next year," Gaston said. "As far as the two teams we've never had any bad blood in that sense."

There were no further incidents after the ejections.

"I can understand why (Welke) did it and what it looks like," Showalter said. "There was no intention there, just a wild pitcher. I'd have felt the same way (Welke) did and I'm sure Cito did. The rules are set up to not let something like that get out of hand."

Bautista went to first after being hit the second time without any outburst.

"We've got a game to win, so I'm not trying to get ejected or anything like that," Bautista said. "Plus there's ways of handling that sort of stuff. It`s not new to the game of baseball. It's been played for over a century. It's supposed to be dealt with between the lines with baseball plays."

Before Simon hit Bautista, the previous pitch came close to the Blue Jays right-fielder.

"I don't really know if there's a reason for that," Bautista said. "All I know is I got hit twice."

Simon was the Orioles closer for a time this season but lost that job. Sunday was the first time he had entered a game as early as the fifth. It only increased Gaston's suspicions.

"He`s a short guy, he`s not a long guy. That was suspicious," Gaston said.

Bautista has been ducking pitches since establishing himself as the majors home-run leader.

"Well, it's certainly got nothing to do with him being a cab driver," Gaston said. "They're pitching up around his head. There's other guys that hit home runs in this league, I don't see (Detroit's Miguel) Cabrera get knocked down at all the time. I don't like it. You don't throw at people's heads. That's their livelihood. You can hurt somebody really bad if you hit them in the head."

Simon said he knows Bautista -- both are from the Dominican Republic -- and that he had not intended to hit him.

"I talked with Simon inside and there's not any intent there," Showalter said. "But I can certainly see what it looks like."

Simon came in for VandenHurk who was making his first start of the season and went four innings and allowed four hits and three runs while striking out five.

Jason Frasor pitched 1 1/3 innings for his fourth save of the season.

The Blue Jays scored a run in the first on a leadoff walk by Travis Snider, a stolen base, and a single by Vernon Wells. The Orioles scored in the second when Adam Jones came in on Matt Wieters' sacrifice fly to right.

The Blue Jays scored in the bottom of the second. Buck led off with a walk and Adam Lind had an infield single before McDonald hit a sacrifice fly to left.

Lyle Overbay, who won Saturday's game with an 11th-inning homer, doubled to centre with two out in the third to give Toronto a 3-1 lead. It scored Bautista who was at first after being hit by a pitch.

McDonald drove in two runs with a two-out single in the sixth to increase Toronto's lead to 5-1. It scored Buck who singled with one out and Lind who doubled.

Shawn Camp took over for Marcum in the eighth and gave up a run on singles by Ty Wigginton, Scott and Jones.

Notes: McDonald started at shortstop with Yunel Escobar getting the day off. ...The Blue Jays open their final home series of the season Monday against the New York Yankees. Former Blue Jay A.J. Burnett (10-14, 5.05 earned-run average) will face Marc Rzepczynski (2-4, 5.75 ERA). ...The Yankees are still trying to clinch a post-season spot. ...The Blue Jays end their season with four away games against the Minnesota Twins.