Six Innings

Injured Olson The night wasn't going smoothly for Orioles rookie left-hander Garrett Olson. Then it became much shorter than he anticipated. Olson left after 3 2/3 innings with stiffness in his left forearm and is listed as day-to-day. He allowed five runs and five hits, with two walks and three strikeouts. Three runs scored on Coco Crisp's homer in the fourth inning that wiped out a 4-2 lead. Olson faced one more batter, striking out Kevin Cash. More breakdowns Olson had other issues besides his arm. Twice in the third inning, he threw to the wrong base, eliciting gestures of frustration from a few teammates.

The blueprint on how to beat the New York Yankees has been missing from the Orioles? vault for so long. No matter what they tried, no matter how hard they battled, the result was usually frustration. But on two consecutive nights here, the Orioles appeared to have discovered something. Get a gritty outing from a rookie starter, get several big outs from the resurgent bullpen, get enough lutch hits froman offense that is finding ways to beat teams on a nightly basis, and suddenly the Yankees don?

When Steve Trachsel returned to the dugout after he got out of a jam in the sixth inning, Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo approached him and asked how he was feeling. Trachsel was honest. He was getting tired and his right forearm, which took the brunt of Travis Hafner's line drive in the first inning, had tightened up and was starting to affect his control. So in a tie game and with a potential series victory over the powerful Cleveland Indians hanging in the balance, Perlozzo did something he has grown accustomed to - he went to his bullpen.

SEATTLE -- Jay Gibbons has grown tired of talking about his tumultuous season that has seen him flirt with a sub-.200 average and essentially become a $5 million part-time player. When asked about his future with the Orioles before the game, Gibbons, slumped in his chair in the visiting clubhouse at Safeco Field, shrugged his shoulders. It's what he's done so many times this season while at a loss to explain the most disappointing stretch of his career. But every once in a while, Gibbons will remind Orioles officials why they signed him to a four-year, $21.1 million contract before the 2006 season.

Highlights and lowlights from the Orioles' 2-2, 13-inning tie with the Florida Marlins in Viera, Fla.UP -- Cal Ripken: Somehow, he managed to treat the day like any other.UP -- Mike Mussina: Two unearned runs in his longest outing this spring.UP -- Brady Anderson: Nothing like having a leadoff hitter whose average is above .300 -- and climbing.UP -- Jesse Garcia: The kid won't let up.UP -- Jason Johnson: Six up, six down. Way to make an impression.The batsGarcia went 3-for-5, raising his average from .212 to .263.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Welcome to September baseball in the land that franchise relocation forgot. In a setting where fans throw their voices to hear the echo, Scott Erickson gave the Orioles another strong showing against his former club in a 5-0 win before 9,263 at the Metrodome. As long as the game "survives" in the Great White North, the Orioles will always have somewhere to get well.Only 45-68 against the rest of the American League, the Orioles improved to 6-1 against their small-market competition.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Sidney Ponson is projected for three more starts that will carry him beyond 200 innings for the first time in his young career and possibly to 15 wins. Less than two years after ending a troubling season at Double-A Bowie, Ponson, 22, could conceivably join Mike Mussina and Scott Erickson to give the Orioles a 15-win triumvirate for the second time in three seasons."I've had a pretty good year," said Ponson. "Coming into the season I had one goal -- to get 200 innings. I've got that.

Given yet another encouraging start by Scott Erickson, the Orioles and their purposeful offense extended a successful weekend into a five-game winning streak by beating the Kansas City Royals last night, 7-1, before 37,501 at Camden Yards. For the first time this season the Orioles appear equal to the sum of their parts.The 26-36 Orioles have won their past four games by a combined 40-4 and trail the third-place-and-fading Toronto Blue Jays by one game."I think they're through their tough time.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- For five innings the Orioles were held to one hit by Oakland Athletics starter Gil Heredia and found themselves trailing 5-0. Their answer was one of the most convincing this season.Battering one of the league's better bullpens with 11 hits and consecutive home runs during the next three innings, the Orioles rallied for seven unanswered runs to reward solid relief work by Doug Johns (1-1), Jesse Orosco and Arthur Rhodes. The uplifting result was a 7-5 reversal before 26,247 at Network Associates Coliseum.

Highlights and lowlights from the Orioles' 2-0 victory over the Florida Marlins in Viera, Fla.UP -- Cal Ripken: The last day in Florida brings his first home run.UP -- Juan Guzman: If he's this good when the games count, clear space for the Cy Young.UP -- B. J. Surhoff: Reaches base three times and steals second.UP -- Doug Johns: Two scoreless innings in relief.EVEN -- Jesse Garcia: Singles in his first at-bat, but gets picked off. Hey, he did play 13 innings the night before.UP -- Rich Amaral: Has proved that he's healthy enough to start the season.

MIAMI - -Orioles right-hander Koji Uehara's next start is in jeopardy as he deals with what the team is describing as arm fatigue. "Physically, I'm OK," Uehara said through his interpreter, Jiwon Bang. "Elbow-wise, not perfect. It's like a fatigue." Uehara acknowledged that he asked out of his start Tuesday after six innings in which he allowed only one earned run and seven hits while throwing 76 pitches. Uehara (2-4, 4.05 ERA), who got a no-decision and remained winless in his past 10 starts dating to April 13, said after the game, "I couldn't really [use]

In one of his rare public admissions of frustration, Orioles manager Dave Trembley said before Friday's series opener against the Atlanta Braves that he is worn out by having to answer the same questions and wishes everybody would just "turn the page." But Trembley has been around the game long enough to know that simply won't happen until his team does the same and finds a way to break an offensive slump that has put a stranglehold on its season. The Orioles had their leadoff runner on in five of their first six innings and six of nine overall.

The No. 15 River Hill Hawks had been pecking away at No. 13 Eastern Tech for six innings in the Class 2A state baseball final at Ripken Stadium on Saturday, but aside from one run they had little to show for it. Then, with one out in the bottom of the seventh and still down a run, the Hawks took flight. They used a walk, two errors and two hits, the final one coming from junior center fielder Christian Laidley, who drove in starting pitcher Jeff Crosswhite with the winning run in the 3-2 victory.

BOSTON - They're not looking for seven shutout innings or a complete-game, 10-strikeout masterpiece. The bar has been lowered so significantly already this season that Orioles manager Dave Trembley and pitching coach Rick Kranitz would probably settle for one of their starters getting through six innings and keeping his team in the game. It doesn't seem like they're asking for too much, even as one Orioles starter after another fails to deliver such an outing. On a chilly Saturday night at Fenway Park, Adam Eaton became the latest Orioles starter to falter.

Baez rolling Reliever Danys Baez, who has come back from 2007 elbow-ligament-replacement surgery, had another impressive outing yesterday. He faced five Tampa Bay Rays and struck out four. The other hitter, Akinori Iwamura, grounded out. Baez has pitched 3 2/3 innings this season and has not allowed a base runner while striking out five. He missed all of last season. An easy out Tampa Bay's Gabe Kapler assumed that a hard-hit ball to deep third would be the third out of the fourth inning.

A rough return: : Brian Burres returned from nearly a month of exile at Triple-A Norfolk and picked up where he left off - struggling on the mound in the major leagues. He allowed 10 hits and six runs (five earned) in five innings. His ERA is 5.79 Another fine homecoming: : White Sox starter Gavin Floyd, a Mount St. Joseph graduate, pitched well in his first outing against the Orioles in April (six innings, no earned runs) but didn't get a decision. This time, the 25-year-old right-hander from Severna Park made it count.

DETROIT - The Orioles' schedule will allow manager Dave Trembley to make a move that the organization's lack of pitching depth prevented him from making days ago - pulling Dennis Sarfate from the rotation and sending him back to the bullpen. With three days off during the next 2 1/2 weeks, Trembley has the luxury of skipping the fifth spot in the rotation, meaning last night's start was Sarfate's last for the foreseeable future. The converted reliever showed some improvement but not nearly enough to warrant a longer look in the rotation.

A recap of the Orioles' 11-6 loss to the Angels last night: Fewer than six again Orioles starter Radhames Liz was pulled in the sixth inning with the bases loaded and two outs and the Orioles trailing 6-3. It was the sixth time in his past seven starts that he failed to get through six innings. He's not alone. Orioles starters have pitched six innings only twice in 10 games since the All-Star break and have an ERA of 8.35 in that span. Liz was charged with six runs on seven hits and four walks in 5 2/3 innings.

Orioles manager Dave Trembley issued the challenge Wednesday, imploring his starting pitchers to throw more strikes, attack hitters and work deeper in games. "If they don't get better, that opportunity won't be there forever," Trembley said. Unlike Garrett Olson and Radhames Liz, who are still novices in the major leagues, Daniel Cabrera's opportunity has lasted more than four seasons and he still hasn't proved he can be consistently relied on to do anything more than take the ball every fifth day. In his matchup with Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay yesterday, Cabrera continued his regression after a fine start, allowing a season-high seven earned runs in five-plus innings of the Orioles' 7-1 loss before an announced 23,329 at sun-splashed Camden Yards.

A recap of the Orioles' 6-5 loss to the Tigers last night: Six innings, no win Garrett Olson lasted six innings for the first time since June 5, but he left the game with the Tigers ahead 5-4. Olson allowed seven hits, walked four and struck out five. He threw 91 pitches, 57 for strikes. Olson had a clean first inning but put runners on base in all the others. Gary Sheffield hit a two-run homer in the second, Marcus Thames had a run-scoring double in the third and Brandon Inge belted a two-run homer in the sixth.