Orioles Beat A’s in Ninth Again

Every night, it seems, it’s someone different who steps up for the red-hot Baltimore Orioles.

For the second game in a row, the Orioles defeated the Oakland Athletics with a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against reliever Mike Fetters.

On Thursday, it was catcher Lenny Webster who capped a career night with a two-run homer that gave the Orioles a 9-7 victory.

Webster went four for five and drove in six runs to lead the Orioles to their 13th victory in 14 games. The four hits and six runs batted in were both career highs.

Webster’s drive to left against Fetters (1-5) followed a leadoff walk to Joe Carter, who was traded to the San Francisco Giants after the game.

On Wednesday night, Fetters yielded a game-winning homer to Rafael Palmeiro in the ninth.

The victory lifted the Orioles to .500 (51-51) for the first time since May 15. Armando Benitez (4-2) pitched the ninth inning as the Orioles extended their home winning streak to 10.

Ben Grieve homered for the A’s, who have lost five of six.

Texas 8, Kansas City 4--Rusty Greer had three hits and drove in three runs to lead the Rangers at Kansas City.

Juan Gonzalez extended his hitting streak to 13 games and drove in a run for his major league-leading 114th RBI. He has 26 this season against the Royals, more than against any other team, and is one RBI away from breaking the major league record for RBIs against one opponent.

Darryl Strawberry, then with the Dodgers, had 27 against Houston in 1991.

Detroit 3, Cleveland 2--Damion Easley extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a single in the sixth inning and scored the go-ahead run on Bobby Higginson’s single at Cleveland.

Easley, who also had a 19-game hitting streak earlier this season, became the first Tiger player to have two streaks that long in the same season since 1953, when the team began keeping such records. Alan Trammell had streaks of 18 and 21 games in 1987.

Jim Thome hit his 28th homer for the Indians.

Boston 8, Toronto 7--Jason Varitek’s pinch-hit single in the 10th inning at Boston capped the Red Sox’s comeback from a five-run deficit.

Trailing, 6-1, Damon Buford’s grand slam in the eighth cut the lead to 6-5. Mike Stanley’s run-scoring single in the ninth put the Blue Jays ahead, 7-5, but Randy Myers, who had converted 59 of 62 save opportunities, couldn’t get one this time.

The Red Sox tied the score in the ninth on John Valentin’s RBI double and Troy O’Leary’s run-scoring single.