AP Photo/Gail Burton

Toronto Blue Jays’ J.P. Arencibia, right, is greeted by teammates Jose Bautista, Yunel Escobar and Juan Rivera after hitting a grand slam against the Baltimore Orioles in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Friday, June 3, 2011, in Baltimore.

For J.P. Arencibia, Toronto’s convincing win over a divisional foe meant significantly more than his first career grand slam.
Arencibia cleared the bases with his ninth homer of the season, Rajai Davis had three hits and the Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 on Friday night to end a two-game losing streak.
“It’s one of those things you don’t really think about,” Arencibia said. “I don’t remember the last time I hit a grand slam in baseball. It was just one of those things. If I say I was trying to hit a grand slam, I’d be a liar. I just hit the ball and it was able to go out and we had three guys on base. The biggest thing, I think, was it gave our pitcher a cushion and he can pitch with that lead.”
The slam was more than enough for Carlos Villanueva (3-0), who allowed two runs and six hits in 5 1-3 innings, walking one. He is 2-0 in three starts since moving into the Toronto rotation from the bullpen.
“It’s very fine because we got the win, but still I’m a little upset that I haven’t been able to go deeper in games. … I didn’t want to come out, but I understand, and we had a very comfortable lead at that point,” Villanueva said.
Arencibia’s fifth-inning slam gave the Blue Jays a 7-0 lead against Orioles rookie Zach Britton, who has lost three straight decisions after starting the season 5-1.
“You’re never scared of losing, but obviously we had lost two straight and you want to stay close in this division,” Arencibia said.
Even though Arencibia is batting only .255, the rookie catcher has 30 RBIs, among the most by a first-year player in the AL. Nineteen of his 41 hits have gone for extra bases.
“He’s been extremely productive against left-handers and that was the case again tonight,” Blue Jays manager John Farrell said of Arencibia. “He’s done an excellent job at the plate and behind the plate, and tonight he had a very good game all-around.”
Toronto has won 21 of 27 games against the Orioles and is 16-3 in its last 19.
J.J. Hardy homered for Baltimore, which has dropped six of seven games to fall five games below .500, matching a season high.
Britton (5-4) allowed seven runs — five earned — and six hits over five innings, his shortest outing.
“I don’t think I did a good job out there,” Britton said. “Falling behind too many hitters. Watch on video and the hits I gave up were all balls out over the plate (and) up. That’s what a good-hitting team does — they hit those pitches. … The last two outings I haven’t executed well and those are the results.”
Five of Toronto’s runs came with two outs, a trend Orioles manager Buck Showalter wants to see corrected.
“It’s something they’re aware of and we’re aware of,” Showalter said. “It’s not that they’re backing off with two outs. It’s just that we can’t seem to make that putaway pitch, a lot of those with two strikes. We haven’t done a good job of using those counts to our favor.”
Two miscues by the Orioles helped Toronto to a 2-0 lead in the second. After Juan Rivera’s leadoff single, Arencibia reached on an error by third baseman Mark Reynolds. Aaron Hill singled in a run and Edwin Encarnacion grounded into a double play before Britton’s wild pitch plated Arencibia.
In the third, Yunel Escobar led off with a double, went to third on Corey Patterson’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Rivera’s sacrifice fly.
Arencibia’s slam broke the game open in the fifth. The Blue Jays loaded the bases on a walk to Escobar, a single by Jose Bautista and a walk to Rivera before Arencibia ripped Britton’s 2-2 fastball into the seats in left.
Villanueva didn’t allow a hit until Hardy led off the fifth with a single to center, the first of four Baltimore hits in the inning. Hardy later scored on Robert Andino’s two-out liner to left and a single by Adam Jones to make it 7-2.
Escobar’s broken-bat single in the sixth scored Davis, who had doubled with one out and stole third base.
Hardy hit a two-run homer off Jason Frasor in the eighth.
NOTES: After the game, the Blue Jays activated OF Adam Lind (lower back strain) from the 15-day DL and optioned IF Eric Thames to Triple-A Las Vegas. Farrell said Lind would serve as the designated hitter Saturday. … Bautista walked twice, once intentionally, and leads the AL with 49. He has reached base safely in 46 of 49 games this season. … Friday night marked the first meeting of the season between the AL East rivals. … Toronto is 14-14 on the road. … In 12 games since being activated from the DL on May 16, Toronto 2B Jayson Nix is 5 for 32. He went 0 for 4 Friday night. … Orioles 1B Derrek Lee, sidelined since May 15 with a strained left oblique, began an injury rehabilitation assignment with Double-A Bowie on Friday, going 2 for 3 with a walk as the DH.

The Bowie Baysox will be joined for Friday night’s home game by Baltimore Orioles first baseman Derek Lee, who will appear with the Baysox as part of a minor league injury rehabilitation assignment.

Lee is recovering from a strained left oblique muscle and has been out of the Orioles’ lineup since May 16. Through 40 games with the Orioles prior to the injury, Lee was hitting .231 with four home runs and 14 RBI. In his 15th major league season, Lee is a career .281 hitter with 316 home runs in 1,859 games.

It is uncertain how long Lee will spend with the Baysox, Baltimore’s Class AA minor league affiliate.

“Whether it’s one game, two games, three games, four games, that’s yet to be seen,” Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter told MLB.com. “We’ll let somebody else make that decision, but he’s around the corner, we think.”

Bowie opens a three-game series against the New Britain Rock Cats with a 7:05 p.m. game Friday night. The series continues with a 6:35 p.m. game on Saturday and a 2:05 p.m. game on Sunday. Bowie enters play Friday night at 26-29, tied with Akron and Richmond six games behind first-place Harrisburg in the Eastern League’s Western Division. The team was within 1/2 game of first place in late May, but has lost seven of its last 10 games.

Thursday night, the Baysox managed just three hits and suffered a 4-0 loss to the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Richmond pitcher Ryan Verdugo allowed two hits and one walk and struck out 10 in eight innings. Zach Clark went eight innings for Bowie, allowing three runs (two earned) on eight hits with four strikeouts and three walks.

Mitchellville native L.J. Hoes went 0 for 2 with two walks on Thursday. Hoes is hitting .205 in 12 games since being called up to the Baysox from Class A Frederick, where he hit .241 through the first 41 games of the season.

BALTIMORE (AP)—The Baltimore Orioles have reinstated right-hander Alfredo
Simon(notes) from the restricted list.

Simon has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in his native Dominican
Republic. No trial date has been set.

He had to be activated by Sunday from the restricted list, but the Orioles
made the move early after playing a 15-inning game on Wednesday and losing 17-5
to the Nationals on Friday night.

Simon takes the roster spot of Jason Berken(notes), who was optioned to Triple-A
Norfolk after Friday’s loss. Baltimore also transferred infielder Cesar Izturis(notes)
to the 60-day disabled list Saturday.

Simon will work out of the bullpen. He was 4-2 with 17 saves and a 4.93 ERA
in 49 games for the Orioles last season.

BALTIMORE  — New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi has had quite enough of April showers.

New York’s game against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night was postponed by rain. It was the third washout of the young season for the Yankees, the second against the Orioles.

No makeup date was immediately announced, but Girardi indicated it will not be this weekend. With this rainout and the washout of Washington’s game at Pittsburgh, there have been 14 postponements in the major leagues this season, just seven shy of the total for all of 2010, according to STATS LLC.

Sooner or later, though, the Yankees will pay for their unexpected night off. New York also must make up a rainout against Minnesota on April 6 and the one against Baltimore in New York on April 12.

“We don’t like it because you know they’re probably going to be split doubleheaders,” Girardi said. “It makes it tough, it makes it tough on your bullpen, it makes it tough on your guys. But what are you going to do? They don’t want to lose the gate.”

After this weekend, the Yankees return to Baltimore from May 18-19 and Aug. 26-29.

CC Sabathia, scheduled to start Friday, will instead pitch Saturday. After that, Girardi isn’t certain.

“We want to look how it affects the whole schedule,” he said.

New York came to town as the only team in the AL East with a winning record (10-6). The Orioles started the night tied for third with an 8-10 record.

Brad Bergesen, Friday’s scheduled starter for Baltimore, will start on Saturday.

Before the rainout, the Yankees selected the contract of reliever Buddy Carlyle from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and optioned right-hander Hector Noesi to the same club. Carlyle, a right-hander, went 0-1 with a 3.52 ERA in five games with Scranton.

Noesi was recalled from Scranton on April 13 and did not appear in a game with the Yankees. He still has not played in a major league game.

Noesi originally signed with the Yankees as a free agent in December 2004 and was added to the 40-man roster in November 2009. To make room for Carlyle on the 40-man roster, the Yankees designated left-hander Jose Ortegano for assignment.