Shaun Marcum threw his first strong outing since coming back from an injury, a seven-inning, three-hit gem on Wednesday night. (J.P. Moczulski/Canadian Press)

Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said this week that as soon as Shaun Marcum found his location again, everything would be fine.

Well, everything seems fine.

Marcum, making his fourth start after returning from a month off with a sore pitching elbow, tossed seven strong innings of three-hit ball on Wednesday night as the host Toronto Blue Jays beat the reeling Oakland A's 5-1.

After a two-out walk in the opening inning, Marcum was perfect into the sixth, a run that included five straight strikeouts through the fourth and fifth.

Bobby Crosby ended fleeting dreams of immortality with a leadoff home run in the sixth inning, and some good pitching and great defence in the seventh got the starter out of his only jam.

Scott Downs with a quick eighth and B.J. Ryan with one of his standard bumpy ninth innings finished things up for the Jays, who improved to 58-56 on the strength of their third straight victory over Oakland.

The Athletics lost their ninth straight and the 16th of their last 18 as they continue to implode.

Since returning, Marcum had compiled a 9.82 earned run average up to this start, and had tired noticeably in each of those previous three outings. In the last one, on Friday at Texas, he blew a 6-0 lead.

After Wednesday's game he credited the change to a small adjustment made in a bullpen session with pitching coach Brad Arnsberg that prevented his arm from falling behind the rest of his body.

"Just even in the bullpen when I was locating my fastball the other day, a lot of confidence shot through me," Marcum said. "I felt like I was back to normal."

Rookie Gio Gonzalez (0-1) made a strong big-league debut for Oakland despite the first-inning shot by Barajas. After that, he retired 16 of 18 hitters.

His opening inning, however, might not have been exactly the stuff of dreams for the rookie, who barely got to Toronto after having to have a friend fly from Miami to meet him in Chicago with his passport.

With two down, the rookie gave up a double into the left-field corner by Alex Rios, walked Lyle Overbay and then hung a pitch to Barajas.

That was the classic "one he'd like back," as the Jays' catcher lined it to the rear of the first deck of seats in left field for a 3-0 lead.

Rookie settles down

Through the next five innings, Gonzalez looked like someone starting to get the hang of things up in the bigs, retiring those 16 of 18 while mixing up ground outs and fly balls nicely.

When Adam Lind singled to right to open the seventh inning, Gonzalez left the game for reliever Santiago Casilla, who promptly walked Scott Rolen and then wild pitched both runners over.

An out later, John McDonald came to the plate, hoping to squeeze Lind in from third, but the pitch they chose was un-buntable.

Still, McDonald tapped the ball back to the pitcher, who took just a little too long transferring the ball from glove to hand to catcher, and Lind came home to make it 4-1.

After Marco Scutaro walked, David Eckstein grounded into a second-to-first-to-home double play but not before Rolen brought the fifth run across.

The Athletics gave up just four hits, but three of them eventually scored.

Marcum makes it exciting

Trouble came calling for Marcum in the seventh, and it looked serious as consecutive singles and a walk loaded the bases with none out.

First, Mark Ellis grounded to shortstop McDonald and he got Frank Thomas for the force at home on a peg that bounced in the dirt in front of catcher Barajas who snagged it nicely.

That allowed the infield to move back and Jack Hannahan did his bit by grounding to second baseman Marco Scutaro to start a double play that got Marcum out of it and preserved the two-run lead.

"It's a do-or-die play right there," Barajas said of McDonald's throw to home. "I've got to try to become a first baseman and that's a little harder to do with a catcher's glove than a first baseman's glove.

"I just tried to scoop it out there and it was able to stay in there."