Orioles’ Huff gets the fans on his side

BALTIMORE -- He was booed by a sellout crowd on opening day, and the smallest gathering in Camden Yards history reacted in similar fashion when Aubrey Huff came to the plate.

Then, Huff found a way to get the fans cheering again.

Huff drove in four runs to rally the Baltimore Orioles past the Tampa Bay Rays, 9-6, Wednesday night. His two-run home run got the Orioles to within a run in the sixth inning, and his two-run double in the eighth put Baltimore ahead for the first time.

“I’ve been taking it pretty good the last few days,” Huff said. “But hopefully that game will win some hearts back.”

Huff’s sin was insulting the city of Baltimore on a syndicated radio show during the off-season. Orioles fans razzed him every time he stepped to the plate, but their tone changed after he sent a pitch from Matt Garza over the right-field wall.

“That was the sweetest home run I ever hit. I ain’t going to lie to you,” Huff said. “I hit that ball and said, ‘Please, just get out.’ My next at-bat after that I kind of heard more of a mixed crowd instead of all boos.”

The fans heartily applauded after Huff’s double in the gap off Al Reyes (0-1). Ramon Hernandez followed with a sacrifice fly and Adam Jones capped the four-run uprising with a run-scoring single.

All this occurred in front of 10,505 fans -- the smallest crowd since the ballpark opened in 1992.

“You guys are writing how bad we’re going to be this year, and some of these people read into that,” Huff said. “Hopefully we can get this city behind us.”

Jamie Walker (1-0) struck out the side in the eighth and George Sherrill worked the ninth to earn the save in his Baltimore debut.

Cliff Floyd and Carlos Pena homered for the Rays.