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

The news arrived late in Baltimore, and even in the Southland. Ben McDonald had finally won a game.

The lengthy wait ended shortly before 2 a.m. back 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 came with a sense of relief rather than exultation.

“This was just what the doctor ordered,” McDonald said after limiting the Angels to two runs on six hits with nine strikeouts, 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 held the Angels to a bases-empty home run by catcher Greg Myers in the fifth and a run-scoring, bloop 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.”

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 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-and-2 pitch into the bullpen in left.

* ROSS NEWHAN: Angels are prepared to look for talent rather than the price tag in the draft. C4