Orioles Get Back To .500 With 6th Win

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) _ Brian Roberts is sanguine about Baltimore's season-high six-game winning streak and his own groove of hitting safely in 25 of 28 games. After all, it was only a couple weeks

Friday, June 1st 2007, 7:51 am

By: News On 6

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) _ Brian Roberts is sanguine about Baltimore's season-high six-game winning streak and his own groove of hitting safely in 25 of 28 games. After all, it was only a couple weeks ago that the Orioles were mired in a five-game losing skid.

Nick Markakis drove in three runs, Roberts had three hits and the Orioles beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-2 Thursday night to get back to .500 for the first time in three weeks.

``People have to realize, it's a long, long season,'' Roberts said. ``You're going to have your streaks, you're going to have your ups and downs, individually and as a team. You can't panic.''

Brian Burres (3-2) allowed one run and three hits in five innings, struck out three and walked three in his first career start against the AL West-leading Angels.

``It was big for us, not only to extend the streak, but got us up to .500 again, which we've been trying to do for a while,'' Baltimore manager Sam Perlozzo said. ``The team needed to do something like that against a good ballclub.''

In the other AL games, it was: Cleveland 11, Detroit 5; Toronto 2, Chicago 0; and Seattle 9, Texas 5.

Roberts, who came in hitting .314 in his career against the Angels, snapped a 1-1 tie in the fifth with a single that scored Kevin Millar.

``Early on, everybody knows we weren't getting the hits when we needed them and now we are,'' Roberts said. ``That's made everybody relax a little bit. If one guy doesn't get it, then he figures the next guy will pick him up.''

Kelvim Escobar (6-3) gave up five runs on a season-high nine hits in eight innings, struck out three and walked four in losing for the second time in his last seven starts.

``It would have been nice for Kelvim if we had two or three runs on the board and gave him a chance to pitch,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ``But that's part of the game. When our guys got on base, their pitchers made pitches.''

The fifth inning began with a walk to Millar. Ramon Hernandez followed with a double to left-center that had outfielders Reggie Willits and Gary Matthews Jr. giving chase. Willits turned away at the last second, avoiding Matthews by inches as the ball went off Willits' glove.

``He may have tried to call me off and I didn't hear him,'' Willits said. ``Then at the last second, I took my eye off the ball. I couldn't say I was going to catch it 100 percent, but it was one I think I had a chance at.''

Matthews figured he and Willits weren't looking at each other because both had so far to run to reach the gap.

``We're really two center fielders out there, and I'm sure he's not used to looking up and seeing somebody right in his face _ and neither am I,'' he said. ``Maybe I'll trust him to cover a little bit more ground and then I won't have to go from that right-center field gap to the other gap like I'm used to doing.''

Markakis followed Roberts' hit with a double to left-center that had Willits and Matthews on the run again. This time, Willits chased the ball to the wall as two runs scored, extending Baltimore's lead to 4-1.

``Our bats are finally coming around,'' said Markakis, whose 16 doubles leads the Orioles. ``We came in with a good attitude, things are going good right now. It's all starting to come together.''

Los Angeles trimmed the deficit to 4-2 in the seventh on Vladimir Guerrero's RBI single. After Jay Payton's RBI single made it 5-2 in the eighth, Angels' pinch-hitter Casey Kotchman led off the bottom half with a double but was stranded at second.

Markakis' sacrifice fly in the ninth scored Chris Gomez to make it 6-2.

Indians 11, Tigers 5

Travis Hafner homered and drove in four runs, Victor Martinez finished with three RBIs and host Cleveland won despite a rough outing by ace C.C. Sabathia.

Sabathia (8-1) allowed five runs and 10 hits in 7 1-3 innings, improving to 5-0 at Jacobs Field and moving into a tie for the major league lead in wins.

Hafner hit a two-run drive in the first inning and Martinez's two-run homer capped a four-run fifth off Justin Verlander (5-2) as Cleveland improved to 4-0 against the defending AL champion Tigers, who lost for the sixth time in seven games.

Tigers designated hitter Gary Sheffield was ejected in the top of the fifth by plate umpire Greg Gibson after arguing a called strike, then breaking his bat on a groundout and angrily throwing the piece of wood still in his hands.

Blue Jays 2, White Sox 0

Roy Halladay picked up his 100th career victory in his return from the disabled list, and Frank Thomas hit a homer to help host Toronto send Chicago to its fifth-straight loss.

Halladay (5-2) pitched for the first time since May 10, and Jeremy Accardo got the last three outs for his sixth save.

Thomas' homer was his 495th, and 243rd as a designated hitter, tying him with Edgar Martinez for the most career home runs by a DH. Aaron Hill also homered for Toronto.

Mark Buehrle (2-2) gave up the two home runs in his second complete game of the season for Chicago.

Mariners 9, Rangers 5

Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to a career-high 24 games and host Seattle held on for the win.

Suzuki went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Kenji Johjima, Adrian Beltre and Yuniesky Betancourt all had two hits for the Mariners, whose first 11 hits were singles.

Cha Seung Baek (3-2) got the win, giving up five runs on five hits in 6 1-3 innings.

Gerald Laird hit a three-run homer and Frank Catalanotto had a two-run double for Texas, which lost for the eighth time in nine games. Vicente Padilla (2-8) gave up seven runs on nine hits in 3 innings.