Toronto Blue Jays

Who says baseball is a slow, methodical, plodding game? Here's how Orioles reliever Travis Driskill summed up yesterday's 8-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Camden Yards: "All my fortunes changed within two minutes. ... It was outhouse to penthouse." One minute Driskill was giving up a spirits-crushing grand slam, and the next he was watching his team overcome a five-run deficit against the Toronto Blue Jays with a storybook eighth-inning rally - eight runs, all with two outs. One minute Blue Jays right fielder Reed Johnson was catching a lazy pop fly from Brook Fordyce and making a spectacular throw to nail B.J. Surhoff at home plate.

Gordon Huggins first ushered in the upper deck at Memorial Stadium as a 20-year old college student. In the 39 years since, he's seen every good Orioles team and most of the bad ones. He has seen the all-time highlights - like Tippy Martinez picking off three consecutive Toronto Blue Jays in a 1983 game. He's had some unpleasant moments - like the time he saw a scorching foul ball bloody a woman's face. He has endured as countless fans, despite peering at his striped shirt, Orioles cap and orange bow tie, have asked, "Do you work here?"

TORONTO -- No guarantees are attached to a Jose Mercedes start. No guarantee that he'll pitch deep into the game, or get another chance to take the ball. Orioles manager Mike Hargrove insists that Mercedes isn't auditioning each time his turn comes around, but he's not exactly blanketed in security. It's not even certain when he'll pitch again because the Orioles have a day off coming up later this week. But for now, he's the only member of their rotation with a winning record. The only member with two victories since the break.

Quote: " Maybe I've underestimated how tough it is to get rhythm and experience just coming in as a reliever. It's been one speed and one location out of the bullpen." - Dodgers' Orel Hershiser It's a fact: Barry Bonds' two-homer effort for the Giants was his 43rd multihomer game, tying him with Lou Gehrig and Dave Kingman for 13th on the career list. Who's hot: The Brewers' Jeromy Burnitz, homered against the Cubs for his fourth home run in his last five games. Who's not: The Rockies' Scott Karl allowed five hits, six runs in 4 2/3 innings against Houston, including Ken Caminiti's slam.

TORONTO -- Tuesday night, a five-run rally wasn't enough.Wednesday night, 16 hits were too few.Yesterday, Scott Erickson offered the last-place Orioles a quality start after altering his delivery, left after 6 1/3 innings, then watched as the remnants of a 6-0 lead against the Toronto Blue Jays were blown apart in a five-run eighth inning.The resulting 8-6 loss not only completed a three-game meltdown, but was followed by angry exchanges in the clubhouse and a blistering rebuke of the bullpen by manager Ray Miller, whose status is now being scrutinized, as well.

TORONTO -- Cal Ripken awoke yesterday almost unable to straighten.Will Clark took a line drive to his left thumb, fracturing it.If only the Orioles' losses would have stopped with their 6-0 humbling by the Toronto Blue Jays and rookie pitcher Roy Halladay at SkyDome. Maybe then they could have slipped away, dismissing it as just another forgettable day, another squandered series.Instead, the momentum behind the Orioles' embarrassing stagger builds, so much so that first-year general manager Frank Wren cryptically warned that changes are pending if the $84 million payroll doesn't quickly reverse course.

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- This is what happens when you play in the same division with the team that set an American League record with 114 victories: The Toronto Blue Jays won 88 games and still looked like a big loser, finishing 26 games behind the off-the-charts New York Yankees in the American League East.They won as many games as the AL West champion Texas Rangers, but were widely viewed as a team still working its way back to respectability after breaking up a two-time world championship team in the early 1990s.

American League East Division champions this decade:Year, Club1990, Boston Red Sox1991, Toronto Blue Jays1992, Toronto Blue Jays1993, Toronto Blue Jays1994, Strike1995, Boston Red Sox1996, New York Yankees1997, Orioles1998, New York YankeesPub Date: 9/10/98

TORONTO -- The hand grenade is gone because he couldn't get it through customs. But the camouflage is here, along with the ankle-high black shoes, the ever-present TV remote and the contrarian attitude.Randy Myers, last year's Orioles MVP, is alive and well with the Toronto Blue Jays, handling a familiar job in a different country for a team carrying less-grandiose expectations. For Myers, past is past no matter how biting the circumstances that accompanied him north of the border."I said my piece in December 1997 and I'm not going to rehash it. I'm with the Toronto Blue Jays trying to help this club win. That's where I'm at," he said yesterday.

TORONTO -- In last night's understated way, they rolled it around like a cigar and savored it like a fine champagne. The Orioles, a team again in touch with a proud tradition, finished a historic rush to their first American League East title in 14 years by beating the Toronto Blue Jays. Once more, they call themselves champions.Randy Myers threw the last pitch. Cal Ripken caught the last out, just as he did when the Orioles won the 1983 World Series. Manager Davey Johnson settled for the last word.