Orioles Sweep Tigers

The Baltimore Orioles are getting contributions from virtually everyone on the roster. They have won with good pitching and they've emerged on the positive end of several high-scoring affairs.

Not much has gone wrong thus far for the Orioles, who had a long list of heroes Sunday in their fifth straight victory, an 11-6 rout of the Detroit Tigers.

Will Clark drove in three runs, but he was merely one of many stars.

"This is a whole team effort here," said Clark, who's hitting .500. "It hasn't been a one-man show. It's been a little bit of everybody."

Jose Mercedes (1-0), pitching in the majors for the first time since 1998, allowed three earned runs and seven hits in five innings. His batterymate, Willie Morales, had two hits in his major league debut.

"It's early, but it's nice to see different people contributing," Baltimore manager Mike Hargrove said. "We've shown the ability to be able to play longball, and we hae also played good fundamental baseball."

Detroit manager Phil Garner had the exact opposite opinion of his team, which committed two errors in its fifth straight loss. Garner held a team meeting after the game, and he didn't spare anyone's feelings.

"When you get beat and you're looking terrible, it's time to have a meeting," Garner said. "You can yell at them. I did that."

"Our defense has to improve, our base running has to improve, our hitting has to improve, our pitching has to improve. I guess that covers all of it. Take a look at all of the six games and at least one of these factors come up where we didn't perform."

Following six straight games on the road, the Tigers have a workout at Comerica Park on Monday before formally opening the stadium Tuesday against Seattle.

"I'm looking forward to opening the year on a good note back home," first baseman Tony Clark said.

After beating the Tigers 2-1 in 10 innings Saturday, the Orioles unleashed a 16-hit attack Sunday.

"We've found different way to win. We've had great pitching performances and we've also had great offensive performances," Clark said.

Cal Ripken went 0-for-4 with a walk and remained six hits short of 3,000. He's 3-for-18 (.167) this season.

Dean Palmer and Juan Encarnacion homered for Detroit, which led in all three games before coming up short. The Tigers again played without injured Juan Gonzalez, who had one at-bat this series.

"We're so much better than this," said Gregg Jefferies, who walked twice and singled. "This is a better team, but our big bopper is out right now. We need him back in the lineup, big-time."

Detroit starter C.J. Nitkowski (0-2) gave up 11 runs seven earned and 11 hits in 3 1-3 innings.

Brad Ausmus and Robert Fick hit RBI singles in the Tigers' three-run first, but the Orioles got two runs in their half when Encarnacion misjudged a wind-blown flyball to center with two on and two out.

Baltimore sent 11 men to the plate in the second, scoring six runs fr an 8-3 lead. Mike Bordick and Conine hit RBI singles, DeShields singled in two runs, Ripken drew a bases-loaded walk and Clark hit a sacrifice fly.

Clark hit a two-run double in the fourth to chase Nitkowski and Bordick added a sacrifice fly.

Palmer hit his third homer in the fifth and Encarnacion connected on the first pitch from reliever Todd Worrell in the sixth.

Ausmus, who had eight hits in the series, doubled in a run for Detroit in the seventh.

Notes