Orioles Don’t Get the Message and Falter

As a motivational speaker, Baltimore Manager Ray Miller is somewhat lacking.

Miller met with the Orioles behind closed doors for 10 minutes Thursday in Chicago, two hours before game time.

Apparently somewhat less than inspired, Baltimore then went out and lost its fourth game in a row, 7-4, to the White Sox.

The Orioles have lost five of six and remain 10 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the wild-card race.

“I think we need to refocus,” Miller said. “The job you’re supposed to have when you sit here . . . when you have a veteran club you expect it to correct itself. Sometimes that doesn’t happen.”

It didn’t Thursday, when Greg Norton had three hits, including a two-run homer, and drove in three runs for Chicago.

Rafael Palmeiro hit his 40th homer for the Orioles, a two-run shot off Bob Howry in the eighth inning. But that didn’t prevent the White Sox from sweeping three games from Baltimore, which entered the series 31-11 since the all-star break.

“The team is down a little bit right now,” Palmeiro said. “We came in down. We’ve got to put this series behind us. We’ve got to play each game like it’s the last game of a series. We’ve got to win them all.”

And his 40th?

“I’m proud I was able to accomplish that,” he said. “It means a lot to me.”

Miller said he had calmed down from Wednesday’s aftermath of an embarrassing 12-5 loss that featured two errors, a critical defensive lapse during a six-run second inning and only six hits against an unimpressive pitching staff.

He also referred to his lobbying to majority owner Peter Angelos that the front office keep together a veteran clubhouse rather than junk the season in late July.

Miller has consistently refused to discuss the contract status of a clubhouse featuring nine pending free agents. But, with the lure of a postseason run virtually evaporated, he conceded that players would do well to think beyond their own self-interests. “Your contract status is the same no matter where you play,” said Miller.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re signed, on the last year of a contract or a multimillionaire. Whether you stay here or go somewhere else, people are sitting here to see how you play. If you’re not smart enough to understand that, you ought to sit back and take a look at things. When guys reach a certain stature, people put their jobs on the line to tell an owner he has to pay this guy a bunch of money because he’ll play good for you. When someone does that, he’s putting himself on the line for you.”

After Robin Ventura doubled in the seventh, Norton hit his seventh homer of the season to give Chicago a 7-2 lead.

Jim Parque (4-5) fought a head cold and the Orioles, giving up two runs and seven hits over six innings. He has not given up more than four earned runs in any of his last 12 starts.

“My head feels as big as this clubhouse,” Parque said. “I’ve always thrown better when I was sick. In college [at UCLA], I threw with mono. I was huffin’ and puffin’ out there.”

Bill Simas pitched a hitless ninth inning for his 17th save.

Scott Erickson (14-10) saw his three-game winning streak snapped. Erickson, 3-10 against the White Sox, up seven runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings.

He was in trouble from the first, when the White Sox loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batsman. Albert Belle and Norton then had RBI singles, Jeff Abbott had a sacrifice fly and Magglio Ordonez added an RBI single to put the White Sox up 4-0.

Toronto 11, Kansas City 1--Jose Canseco hit his 36th homer and Kelvim Escobar came within an out of the first complete game of his career in the Blue Jays’ win at Toronto.

Escobar (3-2), a converted reliever, has given up only eight earned runs in 35 innings during his first five major league starts. He gave up seven hits in 8 2/3 innings, struck out seven and walked one before Carlos Almanzar got the final out.

Canseco homered in the first inning for a 2-0 lead, and Shawn Green hit a two-run homer in the second.

Carlos Delgado added a two-run single that chased Jose Rosado (7-10) in the sixth inning, Jose Cruz Jr. hit an RBI single off Bart Evans and Kevin Brown added a run-scoring infield single for an 8-0 lead.

Seattle 10, Cleveland 4--Alex Rodriguez hit his 37th home run and the Mariners scored four runs in the first inning on two walks and an error in their win at Cleveland.

After the Indians twice pulled within a run, Rodriguez led off the seventh inning with a 404-foot homer to center field that made it 6-4. Paul Shuey surrendered a run in the eighth when he threw wildly to third on Shane Monahan’s sacrifice, and Joey Cora hit a three-run homer to right on the next pitch to make it 10-4.

Ken Griffey Jr., leading the AL with 44 homers, went one for five and hasn’t homered since Monday, a drought of 14 at-bats.

Seattle’s Jamie Moyer (11-8) got his 100th victory and 1,000th strikeout in the same game.

He gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings, walking two and striking out four.

Cleveland’s David Justice broke out of a season-long slump with three hits, including his first homer since Aug. 3. Kenny Lofton hit his 12th homer, and Sandy Alomar snapped an 0-for-15 slump with a RBI double for the Indians.

Tampa Bay 10, Minnesota 3--Julio Santana (5-2) pitched a five-hitter for his first complete game to end a five-game Devil Rays’ losing streak at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Santana, claimed off waivers from the Texas Rangers on April 27, has worked at least six innings in his past 11 starts and given up three or fewer earned runs in nine in a row.

Paul Molitor, who went one for 11 in the series, moved past Willie Mays into ninth place on the all-time hits list with his 3,284th, a first-inning ground-rule double down the right-field line.

Tampa Bay scored twice in each of the first three innings, keyed by five doubles, to take a 6-2 lead. Bubba Trammell, who had three hits, and Quinton McCracken had two doubles each.

The Devil Rays won for only the second time in 10 games and stopped a six-game home losing streak.