O's halt Cubs' home winning streak

CHICAGO -- See you again in 2126. The Orioles stopped the Cubs agonizingly short of tying their longest home winning streak in the last 118 years on Tuesday, snapping the North Siders' tear at 14 straight games. Baltimore took Chicago's best punch, with the Cubs loading the bases with no outs in the ninth inning and making three straight outs in a 7-5 loss.

The Cubs still tied the longest streak in Wrigley Field history, matching a 14-game mark from the summer of 1936. You have to go all the way back to 1890 -- and to West Side Park -- to find a longer home winning streak for Chicago. Baltimore was more concerned with today, though, and notched its fifth straight series-opening win on the road.

"People that have seen our team play all year, we're kind of used to it," said Baltimore manager Dave Trembley, who claimed not to be stressed in the eventful ninth inning. "They're going to have to earn it. We're not going to give it to them. We're not going to kick the ball. We're not going to walk people in. They're going to have to earn it. I've seen it before."

Perhaps he has, but never quite as nerve-rackingly as on Tuesday night. Baltimore closer George Sherrill, who had gotten a key out in the eighth inning, couldn't find his best form in the ninth. Chicago's first two batters reached base, and shortstop Ryan Theriot reached on an infield single. All of a sudden, the Cubs had three cracks at tying the game.

Sherrill dug down -- as he has often before -- and pitched best with his back against the wall. The southpaw struck out pinch-hitter Ronny Cedeno, getting him to flail wildly at a few pitches. And then he struck out Kosuke Fukudome, who had homered earlier and worked a 12-pitch at-bat in the eighth. Finally, he K'd Henry Blanco to end the game.

"He's unbelievable," said second baseman Brian Roberts, who recorded his 1,000th career hit on Tuesday night. "I've never seen anything like it. Our saying is, 'Never in doubt, Georgie, never in doubt.' But gosh, I'm starting to doubt. He's killing me out there. He's killing all of us. But shoot, it's fun. I don't think he ever doubts himself and that's all that matters."

Sherrill, who has 26 saves, agreed with that sentiment, saying that he only gets nervous when someone else is on the mound. When asked if his teammates felt the same way, he said wryly, "They might have doubts."

"I think it's just being lazy," he had said earlier, explaining how he could look so out of sync and then get it back. "Mentally and physically, just not concentrating on mechanics. You see a bunch of pitches sail high and aren't even close. Eventually, you've got to trust your stuff and just concentrate. I guess it takes bases loaded with nobody out to do it."

Baltimore (39-36) had led for virtually all of the game, riding a strong start from Jeremy Guthrie into the later innings. Six of the Orioles' eight starting position players had at least one hit, and five of them drove in at least one run. Luke Scott got things started with a two-run triple in the fourth, and Nick Markakis and Kevin Millar added run-scoring hits in the fifth.

Guthrie, meanwhile, was mowing down the Cubs (48-29). Fukudome reached him for a solo home run to straight-away center field in the fourth inning, but Guthrie (4-7) held steady in the middle innings. Chicago didn't score again until the seventh, when the first two batters reached base on singles and veteran Jim Edmonds cranked a homer to left field.

"It was a lot of fun," said Guthrie of his outing. "It's a historical ballpark. It's a lot of fun to be out there. I wish I would have hit better, maybe touched the bases. I wish I could have gone further in the game, but it was a lot of fun."

Things began to turn in the eighth inning on reliever Jim Johnson's watch, thanks to two epic at-bats. Pinch-hitter Daryle Ward fouled off several pitches to draw a walk, and Fukudome engaged Johnson for 12 pitches before grounding into a fielder's choice. Johnson allowed one more hit, and then Baltimore went to submarine specialist Chad Bradford.

Bradford got one out and allowed a run-scoring single, and Sherrill had to come on to get the final out. Without Johnson's plucky work, though, the Orioles may never have gotten the ball to their closer with the lead intact.

"You've just got to keep making pitches and try to make them put the ball in play," said Johnson, who also got three key outs in the seventh. "You've got to try and make your pitches still and not get frustrated. ... I kept throwing fastballs. I wasn't locating where I wanted to exactly, but they were still pretty good pitches. They just kept fouling them off."

"He kept throwing strikes," added Trembley. "I thought he got a lesson tonight in the pace of the game. Jim will keep going right at you but there's a time to take your foot off the pedal and slow the game down. It's not how hard you throw, it's where you throw. But he's been tremendous for us and this was a great experience for him tonight."

And it was a great experience for the Orioles, who made their first-ever trip to Wrigley Field and thwarted history in the process. They'll play again on Wednesday and Thursday, but those games will be hard-pressed to live up to Tuesday's drama.

"It's a big feather in our cap," said Scott. "It's a humbling experience. Any time you come in and play a first-place team in their backyard and come out with a win -- especially the way they battled us all day -- it's a tremendous accomplishment."

O's celebrate first three-game sweep

BALTIMORE -- Minutes after capping off a 7-5 victory against the Astros on Thursday night, Orioles closer George Sherrill walked into the clubhouse and placed a broom on Kevin Millar's chair.

After all, it wasn't just another win for the Orioles. It was the team's first three-game sweep of the season and the latest win came without the now almost-standard comeback heroics. The Orioles went ahead mid-way through this one and never looked back -- even when the Astros cut the four-run lead to two in the top of the ninth.

"When you get a sweep, I don't care if it's easy, hard, indifferent or whatever, you'll take it," manager Dave Trembley said. "It's a positive occurrence around here [and] I don't think that's happened very much. We had to work for it like last night, but I thought the intent after last night's game, from what I heard in the clubhouse, [a sweep] was the purpose tonight."

Although it began to look like it might be easy, the win was anything but that for the Orioles. After taking a 7-3 lead into the ninth inning, reliever Dennis Sarfate walked the Astros leadoff batter Ty Wigginton to start the inning. The Orioles then looked to have a double play in hand in the next at-bat when Mark Loretta hit a come-backer to Sarfate who turned and threw to second. Shortstop Alex Cintron, however, could not come up with the ball and the Orioles were not able to get a single out.

The Orioles allowed two runs to score in the inning but Sherrill was able to close it out, getting Lance Berkman to fly out to left field for the final out.

"I kind of probably spoke too soon when we talked earlier this afternoon -- I said there are two parts of the game, the first six innings and the last three," Trembley said. "The last three were totally different than the first six [tonight]. We got a little sloppy there at the end."

"We got some big hits," Trembley added. "We let [Shawn] Chacon off the hook early in the game, but we're swinging the bat really well."

Down a run in the fourth inning, catcher Ramon Hernandez took a 3-1 offering from Chacon over the fence in left field, tying the game at 2. Just two batters later, Cintron hit the first pitch he saw into the center-field bleachers. It was Cintron's first homer of the season and his first since September 7, 2007.

And in the fifth the Orioles tacked on three more runs. With Melvin Mora and Aubrey Huff leading off the inning with back-to-back singles, Kevin Millar then hit an RBI double and Jay Payton smacked a two-run single to drive them in -- a hit that would ultimately be the difference in the game.

Trembley called Payton's hit the single biggest of the game.

Huff then added a solo shot in the bottom of the seventh for good measure, his 12th homer of the year.

Orioles starter Brian Burres pitched well enough to earn the win, giving up three earned runs -- two off solo homers to Hunter Pence and Miguel Tejada respectively. Burres finished after 5 2/3 innings, giving up seven hits and two walks while striking out three.

"They hit two decent pitches," Burres said of the homers. "They weren't too bad of pitches, so you've got to just give them some credit."

"It's always nice even having the chance for the sweep," Burres added. "And then our bats just did a great job giving me support and room to pitch."

The Astros got on the board early with Michael Bourn scoring in the first inning on an RBI single by Lance Berkman and took a 2-0 lead by way of Pence's solo homer in the second. Chacon was tagged with the loss, going five innings and allowed six earned runs on eight hits and four walks.

"Hair's 2-0," Millar said of the team's record with his current bleach-blonde locks. "Lets get some blonde, platinum men out there in the stands. [The hair] won't be going anywhere, it's here for a little bit, we'll see how it goes on this roadtrip."

That's Mora Like It - Mora Muscles Go-Ahead Victory

BALTIMORE -- Two worlds collided at Camden Yards on Tuesday night, when the Orioles got to test their new roster against their former franchise player. The Astros' Miguel Tejada made his first trip back to Baltimore since a December trade that heavily impacted both teams, but franchise stalwart Melvin Mora came up with the big hit in the Orioles' 6-5 win.

Tejada, a four-time All-Star, went 0-for-2 with a walk in his first game against his former team, but the Astros still controlled the game from the fifth inning all the way to the eighth. That's when Mora broke things open with a two-run double to right-center off Houston closer Jose Valverde, who had entered the game with one man out and two men on base.

"I don't care who's there," said Mora. "Miggy was a friend of mine and a friend of everybody here, [but] we just want to beat anybody. The only thing I don't understand is why the people booed him. He did everything he can do for this organization. He played day-in and day-out for us. He played hard every day, and I think you should clap when you see a guy like that."

The winning rally started on a single by Adam Jones, and shortstop Freddie Bynum bunted him over to second base. Reliever Doug Brocail wound up walking Brian Roberts, which forced the Astros (33-38) to summon Valverde. The right-hander struck out Nick Markakis and got ahead on Mora, who worked the count full and sprayed the game-winning double to right-center.

That hit helped the Orioles (35-34) improve to 4-28 when trailing after eight innings and to 16-10 in one-run games. Baltimore also earned its 16th victory in which it trailed by two runs or more and logged its 20th comeback win of the year. And to hear Mora tell it, the latest go-ahead hit seemed pretty unlikely considering the at-bat that directly preceded it.

"When I saw him pitching to Nick Markakis and he threw that high fastball, I said, 'I'm in trouble,' " said Mora, who went into the game hitting .370 with runners in scoring position. "I don't like when pitchers throw that high fastball, because you won't be able to catch it. I'm glad he threw me just strikes, and I said, 'OK, now I've got him.' ... I knew he was going to go after me."

"You know, people have asked me about Melvin being in the three-hole," added Baltimore manager Dave Trembley. "There's a lot of reasons. You put Roberts and Nick back-to-back [and] they're not going to walk one guy to face the other. So pick your poison there, but Melvin has experience and Melvin's numbers don't lie hitting with guys on base and hitting with men in scoring position. Melvin has got some awful big hits for us, and, boy, there was none bigger than the one he got tonight."

Baltimore starter Garrett Olson endured his second straight rough outing and was gone before the end of the fifth. The southpaw helped one run score with a pair of wild pitches in his first inning and was victimized for a two-out rally in the fifth. Three straight Astros got singles in that inning, and infielder Kazuo Matsui drove in two runs with a double.

Strangely enough, Olson had retired 12 straight batters when the Astros began to break through. The left-hander just couldn't find his best form, maddeningly searching for pitches that he had made easily just one inning before.

"Well, I didn't think it was going to end up like that," said Trembley of the way the game progressed. "I'm awful glad we won, but Olson pitched to the fifth [and had] two outs and nobody on and I don't know what happened. [Pitching coach Rick Kranitz has] got the term that he got stuck. I guess he got stuck and couldn't get it out of neutral."

"I think it started with that base hit," explained Olson. "I left the ball up, and for no reason I just wasn't making the adjustment to get the ball back down through the zone. I was just kind of leaving some pitches up and not trusting my pitches at all. I fell behind the next couple hitters and it just kind of snowballed on me. Before you know it, they have three runs.

"It was very frustrating, because I felt good. I felt like I had all my pitches working for me."

That hit sunk Baltimore behind, and starter Brandon Backe helped keep it that way. The right-hander had given up a two-run homer to Aubrey Huff in the third inning but stranded two runners on base in the fourth. Houston's bullpen escaped a tense situation in the seventh, stranding two runners on a strikeout by Baltimore catcher Ramon Hernandez.

The Orioles escaped a similar fate on Mora's full-count hit in the eighth, which meant that closer George Sherrill got a chance to exorcise some demons. The southpaw had a rocky weekend -- allowing runs in two straight outings and speaking of a "dead arm" on Sunday -- but redeemed himself by retiring the Astros in order for his 23rd save of the season.

"I felt pretty good today," he said. "I think icing [Sunday] and getting the day off yesterday really helped. I felt like I had a lot of life in the bullpen, so it gave me a little extra confidence going in."

Trembley, who will celebrate his one-year anniversary as Baltimore manager on Wednesday, reveled in the win.

"It's a real honor for me to be here. And somebody asked me earlier today what it was like for me, because I guess I've been here a year now," he said. "I'll tell everybody here: Watching this team, it's a privilege to be with this team.

"And for what this team has done and for the improvement that's gone on here and the approach and how these guys play the game, it's a real privilege for me to be a part of it."