Mike Timlin

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Orioles right-hander Mike Timlin took the mound Tuesday night and threw the ball as if there were no tomorrow, then insisted that the better course of action would be to act as if there were no yesterdays. The veteran closer retired the Anaheim Angels in order in the ninth inning to protect a one-run lead and help end a seven-game losing streak in the opener of a two-game series at Edison International Field. The 4-3 victory didn't wipe away all the frustration of an extended bullpen breakdown, but it allowed Timlin and his beleaguered fellow relievers - for one night, at least - to look forward instead of back.

The man hates baseball. Why won't someone just admit it? Jerry Reinsdorf hates major-league baseball, and he's doing everything in his power to destroy it.Just connect the dots:Reinsdorf was a driving force in the labor dispute. Reinsdorf disrupted the salary structure by giving Albert Belle $55 million. And yesterday, Reinsdorf gutted his team when it was only 3 1/2 games out of first place.To the list of terms previously used to describe the Chicago White Sox owner -- union buster, large-market bully, mind-blowing hypocrite -- make sure you add "quitter."

Lacrosse picks were poorIn response to Joe Boylan's canonizing of Virginia lacrosse coach Dom Starsia in a letter last week, I wanted to voice my opinion about Boylan's inability to chair the NCAA men's lacrosse committee.Boylan states that the "committee's decisions were honest ones based on its best judgment." Well, its best judgment was poor judgment.Why was three-time defending champion Princeton, which had a nine-game winning streak and one of the toughest schedules in lacrosse, unseeded?

PitchersDarin Blood: Acquired last July for Joe Carter, he underwent off-season elbow surgery. Possible midseason contributor.Ricky Bones: Pitching coach Bruce Kison pushed for journeyman's signing. Ticketed for long relief unless Scott Kamieniecki buckles.Rocky Coppinger: Uninspired winter ball experience. Orioles wonder: Is his time approaching or has it already passed?Radhames Dykhoff: Sidney Ponson's first cousin. Should add to 170 minor-league appearances at Triple-A Rochester.Scott Erickson: Has averaged 232 innings past three seasons, including league-high 251 1/3 last year.

TORONTO -- Move over Pat Tabler, a successor for yourspecialty act has been found.When the bases become loaded, so does the bat of Mike Devereaux. The Orioles' center fielder has a long way to go to match Tabler's career numbers, but his performance this year in bases-loaded situations borders on the incredible.Tabler, who did most of his damage with the Cleveland Indians but now is a utility player for the Toronto Blue Jays, has a career average of .489 when batting with the bases loaded.

A mystery starting pitcher. Jeff Conine homering twice and playing third base for the first time in his career. Harold Baines tripling for the first time since before the Clinton re-election campaign. Relief pitcher Ricky Bones scoring the winning run after the Orioles rallied from a four-run deficit.But out of the Orioles' 9-5, 10-inning win over the Chicago White Sox last night at Camden Yards, perhaps nothing was more significant than their putting one win behind another. For the first time in 38 games, the Orioles own a winning streak.

CLEVELAND -- The Orioles were handed an embarrassment of opportunities last night by the Cleveland Indians but left town only embarrassed. Whatever optimism they cultivated in the previous week was punctured in a 6-5 loss that represented a rip-off of starting pitcher Mike Mussina, more waste from an offense without a clutch and more questions about a bullpen that was overextended in the previous night's loss.Unable to protect an earlier three-run lead, the Orioles were undone by the Indians' three-run eighth inning, capped by David Justice's two-out, two-strike, two-run single off closer Mike Timlin (2-1)

SEATTLE -- Ray Miller saw it as giving his best pitcher a chance to determine his own fate. Mike Mussina interpreted it as something less noble.Either way, the no-luck Orioles lost another winnable game, 4-2, to the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night with Mussina pitching on fumes to American League home run leader Ken Griffey in the eighth inning.Griffey's response was a two-out, two-strike, two-run double that turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead and an agitated Mussina from a winning into a losing pitcher.

The Orioles tried to turn back the clock last night, wearing retro caps that hadn't been in fashion in 10 years. What they got instead was another hard look at the present. Given his only at-bat after being used as a pinch runner, Rob Butler punched a run-scoring single off Mike Timlin in the 10th inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 4-3 victory over the Orioles before 37,939 at Camden Yards who braved the stifling heat and another bullpen failure. The loss was the Orioles' 11th in 13 games and left them 1 1/2 games behind fourth-place Tampa Bay, which rallied to defeat Boston.