Orioles Continue a Sweeping Transition

The Baltimore Orioles look like an entirely different team in the second half of the season. Same for the Boston Red Sox.

Eric Davis hit his 10th grand slam and drove in a season-high five runs as the Orioles completed their first four-game sweep of Boston in 18 years with an 11-7 victory Sunday at Baltimore.

After Davis gave the Orioles a 4-0 lead in the third, Boston got a two-run homer from Mo Vaughn in a six-run fifth. The Orioles then scored four runs in their half and held on.

Baltimore, which reached the All-Star break with a 38-50 record, is riding its first four-game winning streak since the opening week of the season.

“We didn’t have much go right for us in the first half. Hopefully that will turn around,” Oriole Manager Ray Miller said. “It’s nice to sweep a series, especially from Boston.”

The Red Sox still lead the wild-card chase, but they haven’t lost four in a row since a six-game skid May 23-29. Boston now heads to Florida for a two-game series against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

“We move on. Good things will happen for us in Tampa,” Red Sox Manager Jimy Williams said. “We can’t look back. We’ve got to look ahead.”

Doug Johns (3-2) pitched 2 2/3 innings for his first major league victory as a reliever and Alan Mills got four outs for his first save since 1996.

It was the Orioles’ first four-game sweep of the Red Sox since 1980 and first at home against Boston since July 25-27, 1961. But Baltimore still trails the Red Sox by 11 1/2 games in the wild-card hunt.

“It’s a start,” Davis said. “I think everybody wants to forget about the first half. This team is not going to quit. We have a lot of pride.”

Baltimore went ahead for good in the bottom of the fifth. Brady Anderson scored a run after an infield hit and Davis hit a sacrifice fly to chase Jin Ho Cho (0-2), making his second start since being called up from double-A Trenton on July 4.

A walk to Rafael Palmeiro and an intentional walk to Joe Carter loaded the bases for B.J. Surhoff, who lined a two-run single to right.

The Orioles had gone 148 innings over 17 games without scoring four runs in an inning, but they did it twice Sunday.

Vaughn went three-for-four with three runs batted in for the Red Sox, including his 23rd homer.

New York 9, Tampa Bay 2--The Yankees won their 10th consecutive game for their longest winning streak in four years after scoring seven runs in the ninth inning at St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Yankees’ 14th victory in 15 games enabled them to keep pace with the 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates for baseball’s best start this century at 65-20.

The expansion Devil Rays have lost a season-high 10 in a row.

The Yankees loaded the bases with no outs against Roberto Hernandez (0-4) without getting the ball past the mound, then took a 3-2 lead when the Devil Ray closer hit Chuck Knoblauch with a pitch.

Derek Jeter followed with a two-run single and Tino Martinez doubled against Scott Aldred to drive in three runs and break the game open.

Toronto 7, Detroit 2--Roger Clemens struck out 10 in the first five innings for his fifth consecutive victory and Ed Sprague homered twice at Detroit.

Jose Canseco hit a tie-breaking two-run double in the eighth inning, and Shannon Stewart and Shawn Green added homers for the Blue Jays.

Tony Clark homered as the Tigers lost for the third time in 10 games.

Minnesota 11, Cleveland 6--Rookie Eric Milton took a perfect game into the sixth inning and David Ortiz drove in a career-high four runs at Cleveland.

Milton (5-7) didn’t give up a hit or allow a baserunner until David Bell hit his seventh homer with two out in the sixth.

By then, the Twins had built a 10-0 lead on 13 hits against Charles Nagy (7-6) and Jose Mesa.

Milton allowed three runs and four hits in 6 2/3 innings, with four strikeouts and no walks.

Kansas City 4, Chicago 3--Jeff Conine blooped an RBI single for his fourth hit as the Royals scored twice in the ninth at Chicago.

Shane Mack singled against Matt Karchner (2-3) and Dean Palmer doubled off the top of the right-field wall before Jeff King hit a game-tying sacrifice fly to right. Conine then dropped a single into shallow right to score Palmer.

Scott Service (3-1) pitched 1 2/3 innings of hitless relief. Jeff Montgomery pitched the ninth for his 20th save, striking out Chad Kreuter with the tying run at second to end it.