Orioles Double Up on Indians, 18-9

If a lopsided loss to the Cleveland Indians didn’t raise the Baltimore Orioles’ ire, it certainly awakened their bats.

Kevin Millar hit a go-ahead, two-run double in a seven-run fifth inning capped by Corey Patterson’s two-run homer, and the Orioles overcame a four-run deficit to defeat Cleveland, 18-9, Wednesday night at Baltimore.

“They really showed me some character tonight,” Oriole Manager Sam Perlozzo said a night after his team lost, 15-1. “I know when they came into the dugout and it was 7-3, they were still chirping about coming back. Miguel Tejada was saying, ‘Let’s go, we can get them.’ ”

Ramon Hernandez had a home run and four RBIs, Jay Gibbons hit a three-run homer, and Tejada and Jeff Conine each had two RBIs for the Orioles, who have won five of seven.

“You can get waxed like we did last night and come back and put a performance together like we did tonight,” Conine said.

“It’s a good thing, and it does a lot for your confidence.”

The Orioles had a season-high 21 hits and batted around in the fifth and eighth innings. It was Baltimore’s highest-scoring game since a club-record 23 runs against Toronto on Sept. 28. 2000, at Camden Yards.

Boston 9, Tampa Bay 1 -- Curt Schilling opened a season with four straight winning starts for the first time in his career. Schilling breezed through six innings at Boston, striking out seven.

Backed by Boston’s season-high, seven-run third inning, Schilling (4-0) gave up one run and six hits in lowering his ERA from 1.64 to 1.61. He tied Jim Bunning for 15th on the strikeouts list at 2,855 when he got Jonny Gomes in the sixth.

Chicago 4, Kansas City 0 -- Javier Vazquez’s no-hit bid ended in the seventh inning on Doug Mientkiewicz’s check-swing roller down the third-base line at Chicago as the Royals lost their 10th game in a row.

New York 3, Toronto 1 -- Alex Rodriguez homered in his third consecutive game and Mike Mussina made another sharp start at Toronto.

Mussina (2-1) struck out a season-high seven in 7 1/3 innings, giving up one run and seven hits. He lowered his ERA to 2.67.

Detroit 11, Oakland 4 -- Kenny Rogers won again at Oakland and Placido Polanco got his 1,000th hit and drove in three runs.

Rogers, 41, improved to 24-4 in 44 starts at the Coliseum, and 22-1 in the A’s ballpark since 1995.

Seattle 9, Texas 6 -- Carl Everett’s three-run homer capped a five-run ninth inning for the Mariners at Seattle.