Orioles' Bedard reaches strikeout milestone

Canadian left-hander nearing Mussina's single-season franchise record

Last Updated: Wednesday, August 15, 2007 | 6:29 PM ET

CBC Sports

Pitcher Erik Bedard inched closer to making history Wednesday afternoon, while his Baltimore Orioles teammates Miguel Tejada and Aubrey Huff thrilled the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans.

Bedard, who hails from Navan, Ont., struck out eight New York Yankees to give him 207 on the season, 11 shy of former Oriole Mike Mussina's single-season franchise record.

Orioles' Eric Bedard delivers a pitch in the sixth inning against the New York Yankees.
(Kathy Willens/Associated Press)

"Everybody knows they're good and you just try to keep the ball out of the middle of the plate," Bedard said. "I just mixed it up and threw different pitches for strikes."

Bedard, 28, is the first Baltimore pitcher to fan 200 batters in a season since Mussina punched out 210 in 2000 — his last season in Baltimore before joining the Yankees.

But a blowup by the Orioles bullpen ruined the left-hander's second crack at win No. 13 of the season.

With two out in the bottom of the ninth inning, New York Yankees first baseman Shelley Duncan clubbed a three-run home run off reliever Jamie Walker to erase a 3-0 Baltimore lead.

The Orioles went on to a 6-3 victory after scoring three runs of their own in the 10th on Tejada's run-scoring double and Huff's two-run shot off Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who took the loss.

More importantly to the Blue Jays faithful, Toronto moved to within six games of the second-place Yankees in the American League wild card race.

Bedard, in search of his ninth straight decision, blanked the vaunted New York offence for seven innings, scattering four hits and walking two.

He entered the game ranked fifth in the AL in earned-run average (3.11) and first in batting average against (.212), while leading the majors in strikeouts (199).

Pitcher making late run at Cy Young

"His stuff is so electric that even if he's not trying to strike [opposing batters] out, they're going to strike out," former Oriole and Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer told MLB.com earlier this month.

Bedard (12-4) is making a late-season case for the Cy Young Award as the top hurler in the AL, going 8-0 with an ERA under 2.40 in his last 11 starts. He hasn't lost since June 10 against the Colorado Rockies.

The league's pitcher of the month for July has yielded three runs or fewer in 17 of his last 18 starts and is 8-1 in 15 road outings this season.

Baltimore won two of three games from the Yankees to take an 8-4 lead in the season series. The teams play two more three-game sets in September.