PHOENIX - The Orioles had never played a game at Bank One Ballpark, but they had heard plenty about the heat.
Not the desert heat that causes the Arizona Diamondbacks to close the retractable roof above their stadium. The kind the Orioles will see from Diamondbacks pitchers Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson over the next two nights.
So it was hard not to look at last night's game against Arizona pitcher Brian Anderson as a must-win, lest they face the serious prospect of getting swept in this three-game interleague series.
Anderson hadn't won a start since July 22, but on this night he and the Diamondbacks had enough to defeat the Orioles, 6-3.
The loss dropped the Orioles to 2-3 halfway into this four-city, 10-game road trip that ends this weekend in San Francisco. And things look a little bleak, considering the defending champion Diamondbacks are 25-4 in games when Schilling or Johnson take the mound.
Anderson (2-6) held the Orioles to three runs in 6 1/3 innings. The Orioles had nine hits against Anderson, but they had trouble piecing together a rally until the seventh.
Geronimo Gil led off the inning with his eighth home run, trimming Arizona's lead to 4-2. With one out, pinch-hitter Jose Leon delivered his first major-league hit, and after giving Anderson a pat on the back at the mound, Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly turned to his bullpen.
Gary Matthews made it 4-3 with a run-scoring single off Diamondbacks reliever Duane Sanchez. But Arizona got out of the inning when third baseman Craig Counsell made a tough back-handed stop on a smash by Tony Batista, throwing to second for the force out.
Erubiel Durazo padded the Diamondbacks' lead with a two-run homer off Orioles reliever B.J. Ryan in the seventh.
Mike Koplove pitched Arizona through the eighth inning, and Byung-Hyun Kim pitched the ninth for his 19th save.
Orioles pitcher Jason Johnson (1-5) was nowhere near as sharp as he was Thursday in Cleveland, when he held the Indians to one run on three hits over eight innings. In that start, he introduced a harder, tighter curveball that led to a season-high seven strikeouts.
This time, he had trouble locating his fastball to set up his off-speed pitches, and Orioles manager Mike Hargrove pulled him for a pinch hitter in the fifth inning, with Arizona leading 4-1.
Johnson allowed four runs on eight hits in his four innings, but Arizona's lead could have been much bigger. The Diamondbacks scored two runs with two outs in the first inning, to take a 2-1 lead.
