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Maroth Back On Mound For First Time Since 2007

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The Associated Press

Published: March 3, 2009

DUNEDIN - Mike Maroth faced major leaguer batters for the first time since 2007, and gave up two runs in two innings of the Toronto Blue Jays' 6-4 loss to Canada on Tuesday.

"My arm felt great," said Maroth, who was out with a shoulder injury last season. "Probably felt too great. It's been a while since I've been able to get out there. Got that adrenaline."

Maroth made it through the first inning despite walking the first two batters. In the second, a walk and hit batter led to two runs — on a double by Washington's Peter Orr.

"No runs is a goal. It's the objective, obviously," Maroth said. "But as far as the tempo and falling behind hitters, it wasn't good. I just fell behind hitters and (went) real deep in counts instead of being aggressive. But I wasn't off by a lot. I was down, just missing a little bit."

Blue Jays rookie right-hander Scott Richmond started for Canada and allowed two runs on four hits in 2 2-3 innings on a chilly, windy day.

Richmond said he was "most happy with the slider today and second-inning location of the fastball. I was missing the changeup, but I was missing down over the plate and that's fine for me. If I'm going to miss, that's where I want to miss."

He was removed with two outs in the third after Russ Adams walked, and Scott Campbell and Jason Lane singled for a Blue Jays' run.

"We were on a pitch restriction with him," Canada manager and former Blue Jays catcher Ernie Whitt said, "and we wanted to keep him under 49 pitches. He was at 45. If we were playing in the tournament or he didn't have restrictions, he would have stayed out there."

Arizona's Luke Carlin broke a 3-all tie with a two-run double off Toronto's Bill Murphy in the sixth. Minor leaguer Aaron Mathews homered for the Blue Jays.

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