Road Trip

At the end of a long winter, the words "road trip" have a particular appeal, especially if you're headed somewhere that's warm and has listless alligators in fetid pens as a tourist attraction, which we'll get to in a moment. So with gas cheap and hotels practically giving away rooms, my buddy Ed and I loaded the suitcases and golf clubs in the car and hurtled down Interstate 95 for a week of R&R in the great state of Florida. One of the dangers of driving south on 95 is that you'll go insane from the mind-numbing parade of Shoney's and Stuckey's billboards that line the highway, not to mention the 4,000 signs for the ever-tacky Pedro's empire at South of the Border.

The stopper Jon Leicester hadn't made a start in more than two years before joining the rotation Saturday. He's riding a two-game winning streak. Leicester threw 5 2/3 shutout innings, allowing four hits, walking three and striking out one. Bench coach Tom Trebelhorn, serving as manager during Dave Trembley's three-game suspension, removed Leicester after 83 pitches. Jim Hoey entered the game and needed one pitch to strand two runners and preserve a 2-0 lead. No mismatch John Lackey, a 16-game winner and Cy Young candidate, figured to mow down an Orioles lineup that was missing Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, Ramon Hernandez, Melvin Mora and Corey Patterson - the last two because of injuries.

Quote: "Sweeping in New York built a whole lot of confidence, but we know one road trip doesn't get us into the playoffs." -- Mike Stanley of the Red Sox, who began their final homestand with a 14-3 victory after completing a 9-3 road trip It's a fact: The Devil Rays' Roberto Hernandez converted his 19th straight chance and became the 20th AL reliever with 40 saves in a season.Who's hot: In his past four games, the Yankees' Paul O'Neill has three homers, including a grand slam, and 13 RBIs.

Encouraged by his back's response to treatment and recent workouts, third baseman Cal Ripken said yesterday that he is hopeful of leaving the disabled list during the Orioles' 10-game road trip, which begins tonight in Detroit. Ripken met with general manager Frank Wren before yesterday's game and plans to have a follow-up discussion today.Limited to eight starts this season, Ripken has been on the disabled list retroactive to April 18 after "nerve irritation" forced him to leave the team in Toronto during its last road trip.

SEATTLE -- Second baseman Delino DeShields is to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging test this afternoon to determine the cause and extent of what Orioles officials termed a lower back strain.DeShields suffered the injury during the sixth inning of Tuesday night's 14-11 win over the Seattle Mariners. He was backing up a play made by shortstop Mike Bordick when he grabbed his lower back and crumbled to the Kingdome floor. DeShields remained immobile for several minutes before being helped to the clubhouse.

SEATTLE -- Last night the Orioles' road trip came down to a decision, a pitch, and, ultimately, another injustice for Mike Mussina.After spending the early innings squandering outs on the bases, the Orioles capped a 4-5 road trip by losing, 4-2, to the Seattle Mariners thanks to a two-run, two-strike, two-out double by Ken Griffey, and manager Ray Miller's tacit vote of no confidence in his bullpen.Mussina (7-3) held the Mariners to three hits through seven innings before he reached Griffey with runners at first and third in the eighth.

B. J. Surhoff hit two home runs and made the defensive play of the game in the Orioles' 4-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox yesterday, but he downplayed the importance of his own performance.The Orioles had just pulled off an uplifting three-game sweep before a crowd of 36,880. They have won four straight games and five of their last six to envelope Camden Yards in a positive atmosphere for the first time this year.The two home runs had a lot to do with that, but Surhoff knows the secret of the Orioles' new-found success.

It was fun while it lasted. The Orioles enjoyed a two-week roll that carried them back into the conversation in the American League East, but the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox have reminded them in no uncertain terms where the real power resides in the division.Right-hander David Cone dominated the Orioles lineup for eight innings and first baseman Tino Martinez drove in three runs as the Yankees scored a 7-4 victory yesterday and moved to the threshold of a devastating three-game sweep at Camden Yards.

Julie Tamburello and Tarun Kundhi met in 1994 when they both worked at an area health-care company. They crossed paths at after-work happy hours with co-workers and even lunched occasionally, but neither thought they had much in common.Besides working at her job, Julie had enrolled as a graduate student in the University of Baltimore's publication-design program, so she spent most of her time away from work studying.Tarun, on the other hand, was on the corporate fast track. He worked hard, but he also played hard.

Ray Miller survived another off day as Orioles manager yesterday, and may have even strengthened his position with majority owner Peter Angelos, who apparently endorsed Miller's suggestion to revamp his veteran pitching staff without input from general manager Frank Wren.Angelos and Miller spoke at length yesterday after the team's return from a sloppily played, 3-7 road trip that resurrected speculation about Miller's job security. In contrast to Saturday, when he sounded almost resigned to becoming the first manager fired in midseason by Angelos, Miller said yesterday he will confront those who feel a change necessary.

CLEVELAND - -What was initially thought to be a scheduling quirk - the Orioles' making their first and only trip to Progressive Field on the penultimate weekend of the season - suddenly looked like a scheduling gift. In the Cleveland Indians, the Orioles found an opponent that was actually playing worse than them. But even what appeared to be a favorable matchup wasn't enough to break the Orioles out of a funk that has them spiraling dangerously close to the third 100-loss season in franchise history.

It's time for the Orioles' annual September swoon, and a bunch of the biggest baseball planets are lined up to make them look like the worst baseball team in the universe. The New York Yankees come to town next, followed by the wild card-worthy Texas Rangers, and that's just a warm-up for the road trip that begins a 12-game divisional death march against the Boston Red Sox, Yanks and Tampa Bay Rays. In other words, this is the point where this transitional season has a chance to become terrifying.

BOSTON - -After what had transpired on this nine-game road trip, there was very little that was going to allow the Orioles to board a plane here Sunday night feeling good about themselves or the future of their organization. But over seven innings Sunday afternoon against a lineup that has doomed so many Orioles pitchers before him, rookie right-hander David Hernandez delivered the finest and longest start of his young career and provided the organization with one positive to take home from an extremely difficult trip.

OAKLAND, Calif. - -Aubrey Huff endured five of his balls getting caught either on the warning track or at the wall in Seattle. In the same series at Safeco Field, he hit a shot that was initially ruled a homer and correctly overruled into a foul ball. In Friday's series opener at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Huff watched another potential homer die on the right-field warning track. Frustration ensued after each near miss, but the Orioles' first baseman didn't reach his breaking point until the eighth inning Saturday night, when he had a bloop hit with two men on taken away on a diving play by Oakland Athletics left fielder Matt Holliday.

Orioles fans are growing restless, and why not? The O's are struggling - as everyone knew they would - and the clock seems to be running out on the stopgap options the front office employed to avoid rushing the organization's best prospects into the major leagues during what was always supposed to be a transitional season. Ryan Freel is already gone. Mark Hendrickson is out of the rotation. Adam Eaton could be one frightening Thursday start at the new Yankee Stadium from being placed on release waivers.

At the end of a long winter, the words "road trip" have a particular appeal, especially if you're headed somewhere that's warm and has listless alligators in fetid pens as a tourist attraction, which we'll get to in a moment. So with gas cheap and hotels practically giving away rooms, my buddy Ed and I loaded the suitcases and golf clubs in the car and hurtled down Interstate 95 for a week of R&R in the great state of Florida. One of the dangers of driving south on 95 is that you'll go insane from the mind-numbing parade of Shoney's and Stuckey's billboards that line the highway, not to mention the 4,000 signs for the ever-tacky Pedro's empire at South of the Border.

BOSTON - There was the bunt that was rolling foul before bouncing off a spike mark, a home run taken away by a superb defensive play and a throwing error that resulted in another excruciating loss on a road trip that couldn't have gone much worse. "When you're in last place and you're struggling as much as we are, bad things happen," Orioles third baseman Aubrey Huff said. Learning about 24 hours before the game that they would need to scratch ace pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, the Orioles got a total of six shutout innings from emergency starter Lance Cormier and Dennis Sarfate and took a four-run lead over Daisuke Matsuzaka into the seventh inning at Fenway Park.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Orioles third baseman Melvin Mora will likely miss the rest of the road trip with a strained left hamstring, leaving the lineup without one of its best run producers. Mora suffered the Grade I strain in Friday's series opener while trying to beat out a ground ball. He immediately left the game, and manager Dave Trembley said Mora might not return to the lineup until Friday. "I would think the best-case scenario for Melvin would be to be ready to play when we get off this road trip," Trembley said.

You see games like this, and you wonder how they're as close to .500 as they are. Then you remember - wow, they are. The Orioles caught the Sunday Flu again yesterday - either that, or the Overmatched Rotation Flu, or the Busted Bullpen Flu. Or, for a nice change of pace, the Sun in the Eyes Flu. Actually, this time it was all of the above, plus an unwelcome case of the Texas Rangers remembering how thunderous their bats can be. The result at Camden Yards...

ANAHEIM, Calif. - As he stood on the top step of the dugout Tuesday night, the Orioles' Garrett Olson was given a tutorial on how a left-handed pitcher can succeed against the Los Angeles Angels. Apparently, Olson didn't take good enough notes from fellow rookie Chris Waters' one-hit, eight-inning gem. Failing to build off Waters' performance and two straight solid starts, Olson was knocked around for six earned runs in just 2 2/3 innings in the Orioles' 9-4 defeat yesterday before an announced 40,130 at sun-splashed Angel Stadium.