Orioles End Losing Streak

May 24, 1998 / 2:06 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Doug Drabek's pitching and Jeffrey Hammonds' first career grand slam put a stop to the Baltimore Orioles' longest losing streak in a decade. Still, Baltimore manager Ray Miller saw little to celebrate.

"I don't think I'll be too elated about it until we rip off 20 in a row because that's about what it will take to level things out," said Miller, whose team remains in the AL East cellar.

Drabek pitched a four-hitter in his first complete game in two years, and the Orioles ended a nine-game losing streak - their longest since 1988's 0-21 start - by beating the Oakland Athletics 9-1 Saturday night.

"We've been ready," Drabek said. "We've been really needing a win no matter how it's done or who's out there. Tonight, everybody just did a good job of doing what we had to do in order to win."

A frightening outfield collision left Oakland's Jason McDonald with a concussion. The game was stopped for nearly 20 minutes while medical personnel attended to McDonald, who left the field in an ambulance and was taken to Highland Hospital.

"That's always rough on you, when you've got a guy out there who's your teammate. It was tough to stay focused," said Oakland starter Jimmy Haynes (3-2).

McDonald and left fielder Rickey Henderson were running toward each other to field Harold Baines' sinking liner in the third. As Henderson made a running catch, McDonald launched himself into the air and was in an all-out stretch when his head hit squarely on Henderson's right knee.

Manager Art Howe, teammates, Baltimore players and the crowd looked on anxiously as medical personnel immobilized McDonald's head and neck, placed him on a stretcher and put him in the ambulance. X-rays of his head and neck were negative but he was expected to spent the night in the hospital.

"He was completely unconscious for 3-4 minutes," Oakland team physician Dr. Allan Pont said. "He awoke on the field and he was still disoriented but was moving all extremities. He has some amnesia about what went on on the field but he's talking, and we're hopeful he's going to be fine."

Henderson initially remained in the game before leaving in the top of the fifth inning with a bruise above his right knee.

Drabek (4-5), signed by Baltimore as a free agent in December, struck out a season-high nine and walked none in his 53rd career complete game, his first since beating Montreal for Houston on Aug. 8, 1996.

Haynes, coming off his first career shutout, was pounded for seven runs on seven hits in 3 1-3 innings.

Baltimore, outscored 33-18 in losing three of four previous games against Oakland this season, took command from the outset as Rafael Palmeiro hit a run-scoring double in the first.

"I just didn't have my best stuff," Haynes said. "I was all over the place an getting the bases loaded and giving up a grand slam, that kind of put it out of reach right there."

Baltimore got to Haynes for six more runs in the fourth. B.J. Surhoff hit an RBI single, Brady Anderson walked with the bases loaded and Hammonds hit his fifth homer. Harold Baines added a two-run double in the sixth.

Jack Voigt doubled in a run for Oakland in the eighth.

Notes:

Drabek lasted 2 1-3 innings, his shortest outing this year, as Oakland won 12-4 on April 26 at Camden Yards.

Hammonds' slam ended a streak of 51 homerless innings for Haynes.

The nine-game losing streak matched the seventh-longest in the 45 years the Orioles have been in Baltimore. Orioles pitchers allowed at least nine hits in all but one of the losses during the streak.