Aaron Sele

Scouting report: Mariners vs. Orioles At Oriole Park at Camden Yards Day................ Time............TV.......... Starters Tonight......... 7:05........... CSN.........RHP Aaron Sele (13-4, 3.51)vs. RHP Calvin Maduro (2-4, 4.24) Tomorrow.... 4:05............. 45............RHP Paul Abbott (13-3, 4.20)vs. RHP Jose Mercedes (7-15, 5.82) Sunday...........1:35............ 54, 50..... RHP Joel Pineiro (3-1, 2.35)vs. undecided Radio: All games on WBAL (1090 AM) Mariners update A brutal homestand for the Orioles takes another nasty turn with the Mariners' arrival at Camden Yards.

BaseballBlue Jays: Agreed to $4.5 million, two-year contract with OF Shawn Green.Braves: Agreed to one-year contract with OF George Lombard and OF Curtis Pride (Silver Spring).Diamondbacks: Agreed to $685,000, one-year contract with P Hector Carrasco.Indians: Named Felix Fermin manager for Dominican summer league team.Mets: Agreed to one-year contracts with P Turk Wendell ($661,500), P Derek Wallace and P Jason Isringhausen. Named Roger LaFrancois roving minor-league catching instructor and manager of short-season Single-A Pittsfield.

Ben McDonald attempts to become the first eight-game winner in the major leagues tonight when the Orioles and Boston Red Sox continue their series at Camden Yards.The Orioles got a leg up in the three-game set last night with a 3-2 win as Mike Mussina won a sterling pitching duel with Roger Clemens and Lee Smith recorded his major-league-leading 16th save. The win broke the Orioles' three-game losing streak and also stopped a four-game winning streak by the Red Sox.It was a night for streaks to end as the New York Yankees lost for the first time in 11 games, enabling the Orioles to move to within three games of the American League East leaders.

Arthur Rhodes could take the biggest step forward in his career tonight in the last game before the expected strike.Although Rhodes, the current American League Player of the Week, is aiming for a club record-tying third consecutive shutout tonight against the Boston Red Sox, he will settle for a quality start at Camden Yards. That would allow him to chase his ongoing pitching problems at home.His two shutouts in consecutive starts showed exceptional progress, but they were at Milwaukee and Minnesota.

Mariners That was then: Seattle had its second straight sub-.500 season, never climbing out of third place after early July. The Mariners opened spacious Safeco Field and closed both the cozy Kingdome and the Ken Griffey era. This is now: Protesters at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle rallied in December over fair trade; imagine how upset they'd have been if they knew how little the Mariners would get two months later for Griffey....

SEATTLE - A spirited meeting of former and almost Orioles convened at Safeco Field last night. Starting pitcher Aaron Sele (honorary member) and reliever Arthur Rhodes conspired for the first eight innings of the Seattle Mariners' 2-1 victory over their old team and completing a sweep of the three-game series. Sele (8-0) pitched 7 1/3 innings before Rhodes secured the game's two most important outs to hold off a riveting eighth-inning rally. In the 100th win of Sele's career, the loss was another in a series of close games the Orioles have played against contending teams where one pitch, one decision or one swing has often decided the game.

Late Orioles game: Last night's game between the Orioles and Angels in Anaheim, Calif., ended too late to be included in this edition. A complete report can be found in later editions or on the Internet at http://www.sunspot.net. ANAHEIM, Calif. -- With the way the bullpen had struggled over the previous 15 games, every pitching decision Orioles manager Mike Hargrove made Wednesday night against the Anaheim Angels was doubly complicated. Beyond trying to get the victory, Hargrove was hoping to give each member of his relief corps something positive to take away from the game, hoping it would help rebuild sagging confidence levels.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Apparently, this revival by the Orioles plays out just as well on the opposite coast. It stands up to exhausting cross-country travel and time zone changes. It's also heat resistant, preventing a season-long winning streak from melting into defeat, and immune to the game-changing effects of the Rally Monkey. How much further can it go? The Orioles have to wonder after getting a season-high 20 hits and just enough out of right-hander Daniel Cabrera, to produce an 11-3 victory over the Anaheim Angels last night and move them within three games of .500 for the first time in two months.

The Orioles didn't just hold a baseball game at Camden Yards last night, they held their own version of a town meeting - a town meeting in orange floppy hats. How do the fans feel about Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan's first six months in the front office? A crowd of 42,488, the biggest since Opening Day, turned out and gave them a pretty good idea. Beattie and Flanagan's three signature acquisitions to date - Omar Daal, Deivi Cruz and Adam Loewen - were all on display, as the Orioles pounded the Texas Rangers, 8-1, for their seventh win in nine games.