PHILADELPHIA - — PHILADELPHIA - -Over three days at Citizens Bank Park, Orioles manager Dave Trembley listened to loud cheers and resounding boos directed at the Philadelphia Phillies, who just eight months ago captured a World Series championship.
When pinch hitter John Mayberry's bid to tie the game off George Sherrill died in front of the left-field warning track to secure the Orioles' 2-1 victory Sunday, Trembley heard something else from an announced 45,256 - stunned silence.
"It was real quiet here after the final out," Trembley said, a wide smile stretching across his face. "This one was real sweet. This is a tremendous Father's Day. What a weekend."
The Orioles completed a satisfying and surprising three-game sweep over the defending champions as their much-maligned No. 1 starter Jeremy Guthrie out-dueled Phillies ace Cole Hamels. Brian Roberts drove in the game-winning run for the second time in as many days.
A night after hitting a go-ahead two-out, two-run homer in the ninth against Phillies de facto closer Ryan Madson, Roberts lined a one-out single into center field off Hamels in the eighth inning to score Robert Andino and break the 1-1 tie.
What followed was more clutch bullpen work - scoreless outings from Jim Johnson and George Sherrill - and the Orioles' fifth straight victory, tied for their longest streak this season. In dealing Philadelphia its sixth consecutive defeat, the Orioles (32-37) clinched their first three-game road sweep in more than two years, won for the first time in 10 tries this season in a road finale and improved to 9-3 in interleague play.
"I don't think anybody's ready to declare us where we want to be quite yet," said Roberts, who also scored the game-tying run in the sixth, doubling off Hamels, stealing third and scoring on Adam Jones' two-out single. "But people maybe are noticing that we are at least moving in the right direction. That's important for all of us to start to see the light at the end of the tunnel."
Perhaps no Oriole needed Sunday's result more than Guthrie, who had lost three straight decisions and had not won since May 25. But aside from a brutal outing in Oakland, where the right-hander failed to make it out of the first inning, Guthrie has allowed three earned runs or fewer in five of his past six starts, all ending after the sixth inning or later.
