Baines Bails Out Orioles

Just when it looked like the Baltimore Orioles were on their way to another loss in a frustrating season, Harold Baines came to the rescue.

Baines hit a run-scoring triple and scored the tying run in the bottom of the ninth inning, then hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 10th as the Orioles rallied from a four-run deficit to notch a 9-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.

The victory gave the Orioles consecutive victories for the first time this season and ended an 0-16 drought in games they trailed after eight innings.

“It’s a very upbeat win to come from behind like that,” Oriole Manager Ray Miller said. “That’s what we needed. There’s a lot of emotion out there [in the clubhouse] right now.”

Minnesota 8, New York 5--Mike Lincoln got his first major league victory--retiring 14 consecutive Yankees at one point--as the Twins won at Minneapolis.

Lincoln (1-4), who entered the game with a 4.81 earned-run average in four career starts and one relief appearance, gave up two runs and four hits in six-plus innings. He struck out a career-high five and walked one.

Ron Coomer was three for five with an RBI, and Doug Mientkiewicz and Terry Steinbach each drove in two runs for the Twins, who have won three in a row over the Yankees dating to last season.

Kansas City 5, Tampa Bay 3--Carlos Beltran tripled with the bases loaded to lead a five-run, ninth-inning rally that gave the Royals a victory at St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Royals, frustrated for seven innings by Wilson Alvarez, did all of their damage against closer Roberto Hernandez (0-2), who was trying to earn his AL-leading 10th save.

Mike Sweeney and Jermaine Dye singled to begin the ninth, then Scott Pose walked to load the bases. Larry Sutton’s pinch-hit sacrifice fly made it 3-1 and one out later Rey Sanchez walked to set up Beltran.

Oakland 13, Toronto 4--Olmedo Saenz drove in four runs and Ben Grieve, Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada homered to lead the Athletics to a victory over the Blue Jays at Toronto.

Saenz, who signed with Oakland as a minor-league free agent after spending eight seasons in the minors with the Chicago White Sox, went two for three.

His two-run double in the seventh gave Oakland an 8-4 lead. He also had a sacrifice fly in the fifth and an RBI groundout in the eighth.