Darren Oliver

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.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Orioles were waiting for the dam to break and for all of those runs that had been bottled up in their month-long slump to come cascading down on the Texas Rangers.It didn't happen quite that way, but to left-hander Jimmy Key, five runs probably looked like a flood.Key gave up just one run on six hits over six innings and the struggling offense finally stepped up to carry him to a 5-1 win over the Rangers last night before 35,842 at The Ballpark in Arlington.About time.

At The Ballpark in Arlington (Texas)Day, Time, TV, StartersTonight, 8: 35, HTS, Scott Erickson (13-12, 5.02 in 1996)vs. John Burkett (11-12, 4.26 in '96)Tomorrow, 8: 35, 13, 50, Shawn Boskie (12-11, 5.32 in '96)vs. Darren Oliver (14-6, 4.66 in '96)Sunday, 3: 05, None, Mike Mussina (19-11, 4.81 in '96)vs. Roger Pavlik (15-8, 5.19 in '96)Radio: All games on WBAL (1090 AM) and WTOP (1500 AM)Rangers updateTexas won its opener Tuesday, 6-2, over Milwaukee in Arlington. The starting lineup included three former Orioles: second baseman Mark McLemore, who leads off, designated hitter Mickey Tettleton and center fielder Damon Buford.

Even as the Orioles drove to their first playoff appearance in 13 years this fall, you got the feeling manager Davey Johnson wasn't deriving much satisfaction from the accomplishment.He joked about how he had nothing to do, other than pick a lineup and change pitchers. Johnson saw the Orioles as a powerful, artless team -- maybe the way a car connoisseur would view a monster truck.But the '96 Orioles have been stripped down, rebuilt, streamlined into something much more attractive to Johnson and general manager Pat Gillick.

To be completely honest, I had Mark McLemore tabbed as just another managerial "bobo" when he signed a free-agent contract with the Texas Rangers last winter.You know, a "go-fer," somebody Johnny Oates liked to have around. Since he came with a reputation as a utility man, I figured that just meant he was a versatile bobo: A drinking buddy (that was before I discovered that Oates doesn't drink); a straight man for the manager's one-liners; somebody who had learned how Johnny likes his coffee and who always brought pizza with him to the clubhouse for the coaches to share.