Old McDonald Again Has Arm for the Angels : Baseball: Oriole right-hander gets first victory of the season, 5-3. Afterward, Eduardo Perez gets demoted to minors.

The news arrived late in Baltimore, and even to the Southland. Ben McDonald finally won a game. The lengthy wait ended shortly before 2 a.m. in Maryland and a few minutes before 11 p.m. at Anaheim Stadium.

McDonald ended a six-game winless streak to start the season, winning where he almost always does. The Orioles’ 5-3 victory over the Angels, a team he has tormented so often over the years, provided relief rather than exultation.

“This was just what the doctor ordered,” McDonald said after limiting the Angels to two runs and six hits in eight innings and striking out nine, one shy of his career-high, set against the Angels on Sept 1, 1993.

“It was a big game for Ben and for us too,” Baltimore Manager Phil Regan said. “He needed a win. I thought he threw well the last three starts, but he needed a win.”

Doug Jones replaced McDonald (1-2) to start the ninth and although he gave up a run-scoring groundout that cut the Oriole lead to 5-3, he earned his sixth save.

McDonald seemed as if he wouldn’t need much help, holding the Angels to a bases-empty home run by catcher Greg Myers in the fifth inning and a bloop, run-scoring single by Tony Phillips in the eighth.

“I put extra pressure on myself when I really didn’t have to,” McDonald said. “I kept telling myself if I can’t win, I have to do better. It was the wrong attitude.”

Said Angel infielder Spike Owen: “We made a little run at him at the end, but the guy was very tough tonight. He was throwing a curveball for strikes and spotting his fastball. He just had all his pitches working and he mixed them up and kept us off balance.”

After the game, the Angels optioned struggling third baseman Eduardo Perez to triple-A Vancouver and activated Mike James from his rehabilitation assignment at Class-A Lake Elsinore.

With McDonald’s recent failures fresh in their minds, his teammates responded by giving him a quick 4-0 lead, thanks in part to Jeffrey Hammonds’ two-run homer in the third inning and Harold Baines’ bases-empty homer in the fourth.

Brady Anderson’s one-out double into the gap in right-center got the Orioles started in the third. After Angel starter Scott Sanderson (1-3) balked Anderson to third, Hammonds hit a 1-2 pitch into the bullpen in left field.

In the fourth, Baines led off by slamming Sanderson’s 0-1 pitch over the wall in right-center. Second baseman Brett Barberie knocked in the fourth run with a run-scoring single to center field.

With one out in the eighth, the Angels put runners on first and third without getting the ball out of the infield. Phillips’ single just beyond third base scored Damion Easley, who reached on an infield single.

Third-base umpire Derryl Cousins initially pointed foul as the ball bounded just inside the left-field line and trickled into foul territory. Easley trotted home and Gary DiSarcina, who had singled off McDonald, advanced to third--both apparently confident that Cousins had pointed in the wrong direction.

After a moment, the play was sorted out and it was ruled that Phillips’ cue shot was indeed fair.

McDonald then got Jim Edmonds to fly out and struck out Tim Salmon to end the scoring threat.

McDonald went into Wednesday’s game looking for his first victory this season, which partly accounts for the Orioles being last in the American League East.

McDonald, at least, could see relief on the schedule. Before Wednesday, he had an 8-2 record and a 2.03 ERA in 11 starts against the Angels.

And he has been better at Anaheim Stadium, almost perfect in fact. In seven starts, he is 6-0.

Last season, McDonald went 5-0 with a 2.65 ERA for the first month of the season. He won his next two starts to become the first Oriole to start a season 7-0, but lost his consistent edge and finished 14-7 with a 4.06 ERA.

Until Wednesday, he hadn’t captured his 1994 form, however.