Angels Lose to the Orioles in 10th Inning

Cal Ripken Jr.’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning off Mike Bielecki scored Kevin Bass to give the Baltimore Orioles a 5-4 victory over the Angels before a paid crowd of 13,889 at Anaheim Stadium on Tuesday night.

The sacrifice fly ruined the heroics of reliever Bob Patterson an inning earlier and made a winner of Jesse Orosco (1-0). Doug Jones pitched the 10th for his fifth save.

With the game tied, Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann went to his bullpen for a left-hander, but no one in the stands covered their eyes or appeared disgusted. He brought in Patterson, not much-maligned left-hander Mitch Williams, and Patterson pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam.

Ripken led off the top of the ninth with a ground rule double to right field, just out of reach of a lunging Tim Salmon. Angel starter Mark Langston’s wild pitch allowed Ripken to advance to third, and Langston walked Chris Hoiles.

Lachemann replaced Langston with right-hander Mike Butcher, who gave up a grand slam and a solo homer to the Boston Red Sox in his last appearance Friday. But with the infield in, Butcher got Jeff Manto to ground to shortstop, as Hoiles took second and Ripken remained at third.

Butcher intentionally walked pinch-hitter Harold Baines, and Lachemann brought Patterson in to face Oriole lefty Andy Van Slyke, whose fly ball to center field was not deep enough to score Ripken.

Patterson then got Manny Alexander to pop to first for the third out, leaving the game tied.

Two innings earlier, Spike Owen made the blooper reel again, but no one in the Angel dugout was complaining. His pinch-hit, bloop single to left field in the seventh, which followed reliever Alan Mills’ intentional walk to J.T. Snow, scored Chili Davis to give the Angels a 4-3 lead.

It marked Owen’s second clutch blooper of the season--his soft RBI double down the left-field line gave the Angels a 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on May 12.

But this one would not be a game-winner. Baltimore came right back in the top of the eighth when Brett Barberie reached on an infield single and pinch-runner Alexander was sacrificed to second.

Jeffrey Hammonds then slapped a Langston pitch into right field for a 4-4 tie.

The Angels fell behind, 3-0, in the first but fought back with two runs in the fourth and then tied the game in the fifth with the help of a Rex Hudler-ignited rally.

Making his third start of the season and playing only because center fielder Jim Edmonds was scratched because of a foot injury, Hudler led off the fifth with a ground ball up the middle off reliever Mike Oquist.

Van Slyke, the Baltimore center fielder, played the ball nonchalantly and Hudler never slowed down around first. Hudler slid into second well ahead of Van Slyke’s throw.

Hudler tagged on Salmon’s long fly ball to center field and then scored on Davis’ single to right to tie the game, 3-3.

Snow followed with a liner into the right-field corner, but Hammonds made a leaping grab at the warning track for the second out. Carlos Martinez walked, but Greg Myers grounded out.

The Orioles had stunned Langston with a three-run, two-out rally in the first inning, which featured singles by Rafael Palmeiro and Ripken, a two-run double by Hoiles and Manto’s RBI single.

But Langston recovered quickly, blanking the Orioles on two hits over the next six innings to give the offense enough time to get the Angels back in the game.

Davis, picked off first after walking in the second inning, and Snow opened the fourth with singles to left, and both advanced when Manto, the Baltimore third baseman, bobbled Martinez’s grounder before throwing him out.

Myers sent a sacrifice fly to the wall in right, scoring Davis to make it 3-1, Damion Easley walked, and Gary DiSarcina smashed a grounder down the third-base line.

Manto made a back-hand, diving grab, which couldn’t prevent Snow from scoring to cut the lead to 3-2 but did prevent Easley from advancing beyond second. Tony Phillips then grounded out.