Ripken Brings It On Even on an Off Day : Orioles: He produces a homer, a double, two singles, five RBIs and three runs scored in 13-1 victory.

Cal Ripken took a day off Wednesday.

Yeah, right.

Tell it to the Angels, who suffered greatly simply because the Baltimore Oriole shortstop started his 1,917th consecutive game.

Ripken, 213 games shy of Lou Gehrig’s major league record, didn’t dismantle the Angels alone in a 13-1 victory before 20,569 soaked fans at Anaheim Stadium.

Goodness knows he had help.

But his numbers were a rotisserie-league player’s dream come true: one home run, one double, two singles, five runs batted in, three runs scored.

A good week packed into one night.

It was all part of a 19-hit, five-homer, 11 extra-base hit night for the Orioles.

Brady Anderson had two hits, Jeffrey Hammonds had three, Rafael Palmeiro had three, and Chris Hoiles two hits.

And on and on.

No one spanked the ball quite like Ripken, though.

He even overshadowed Oriole starter Ben McDonald, who won his fifth consecutive start.

Maybe that was because it was such an untidy affair, but McDonald wasn’t about to throw it back. He also was perfectly willing to lean on the hitting by Ripken and Co.

Without it, he wouldn’t have had such an easy night.

“It’s been like that all year,” McDonald said. “It’s the reason I’m 5-0.”

Brady Anderson, the former UC Irvine standout, got all this started on Tuesday against Oakland, homering twice in a 10-4 victory.

Ripken, who went hitless to snap a nine-game hitting streak Tuesday, picked up where Anderson left off.

He singled in the first, singled in the sixth, hit a three-run homer, his first of the season, in the seventh and double in the eighth, raising his average to .346.

His homer, which moved him within two of 300, barely cleared the short fence near the left-field foul pole.

Only Eddie Murray, with 333, and Boog Powell (303) are ahead of Ripken on the Orioles’ all-time list.

Wednesday’s game marked the 10th in which Ripken has had two or more hits.

“The last two days we started swinging the bat,” Manager Johnny Oates said. “We had a couple of guys who were struggling and now they’re starting to come around.”

Ripken hasn’t been one of them.

During his recent nine-game hitting streak, he went 14 for 36 and raised his average from .270 to .329.

Said Ripken: “Tonight everything kind of fell into place.”