Oates Yawning the Praises of Valenzuela

Fernando Valenzuela pitched the Baltimore Orioles to yet another victory Sunday, this one a 7-2 decision over the Minnesota Twins, and prompted an almost ho-humreaction from Manager Johnny Oates.

After Valenzuela had raised his record to 5-7 and lowered his earned-run average to 3.53 by limiting the Twins to six hits and two runs in his third complete game of the season, Oates didn’t express any amazement at how a pitcher seemingly six or seven years removed from his prime suddenly could become one of the more reliable members of his club’s starting rotation.

Oates’ praise was distinctly underwhelming.

He practically yawned, in fact. And that was precisely Oates’ point -- that good outings from Valenzuela no longer should be considered surprising. “I’m getting to the point where I’m feeling very comfortable with Fernando on the mound, where I feel like he can get out of any situation he gets himself into out there,” Oates said. “He’s just pitching well. You can analyze it all you want to. But he’s just making good pitches and getting some breaks. I’m not going to try to analyze it. I’m just going to enjoy it.”

Valenzuela -- who began this season without a major league appearance since 1991 or a big league win since ’90 -- continued a run of pitching prosperity that has seen him post a 2.99 ERA in his past 15 starts. He walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 46,208-and with the second-best ERA among Orioles starters, just behind Ben McDonald (who has a 3.49 mark).

Valenzuela -- who has surrendered only 17 hits and two runs over 322/3 innings in his past four starts, going 3-0 -- admitted to feeling some excitement about his recent exploits, but he wasn’t elated.

“It’s great to win some games,” he said. “Every start, I want to do good. ... I want to be consistent. . . . The way I look at it is, this is what I’ve been doing for many years. This is nothing new. It’s just a different team.”

It’s also a sizzling team. The Orioles (50-42) won three of four games from Minnesota (37-52), giving them 10 wins and two splits in their last 13 series. The Orioles remained a half-game behind Toronto and moved into a second-place tie with New York in the American League East, pending the Yankees’ and Detroit Tigers’ results tonight.

The Orioles got three hits Sunday from Mark McLemore, who has hits in 11 of his past 12 games and has moved his batting average back up to .304. They got a two-hit, two-RBI afternoon from Mike Devereaux, who snapped a 2-2 tie with a two-run triple against Twins starter Eddie Guardado in the fifth inning. The center fielder went eight for 16 with seven RBI in this series.

Guardado (1-3) said he was pitching against his idol, Valenzuela, and it showed during a shaky first inning. McLemore’s one-out double and Devereaux’s ground-ball base hit set the stage for Cal Ripken’s RBI single -- extending the shortstop’s hitting streak to nine games -- and Jeffrey Hammonds got Devereaux home later in the inning with a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.

Valenzuela had his scoreless streak stopped at 24 2/3 innings -- the longest by an Orioles starter since 1978, when Jim Palmer and Dennis Martinez both had longer strings -- when Minnesota tied the game at 2 in the second.