Moyer Continues Mastery of Orioles

Someone told Jamie Moyer about his dominance against the Baltimore Orioles and the only response it drew was a slow shrug, with Moyer lifting his shoulders several times.

“OK,” he said after a few seconds. “I’m sure if you look at histories, there are teams you have good records against and teams you have bad records against. The numbers, they happen.”

The delayed answer was not much different from the way he pitches.

The soft-throwing left-hander gave up five hits in eight innings to win his 13th consecutive decision against Baltimore as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Orioles, 8-1, Sunday at Seattle.

Baltimore’s Jerry Hairston is used to seeing a faster changeup and said Moyer’s slow style is what makes him so effective.

“Normally, guys are throwing in the mid-90s and the changeup is like 85 or 84,” Hairston said. “That is his fastball. His changeup I saw a couple times at 72. That’s more like a double changeup. You see it and go after it to attack the ball and it’s not there yet.”

The Orioles head home having finally won at Safeco Field, yet they still haven’t figured out how to defeat Moyer. Baltimore ended a 15-game losing streak in Seattle on Saturday, winning for the first time at Safeco.

Moyer (4-2), who pitched parts of three seasons for the Orioles, is 13-1 in his career against Baltimore, with his only loss coming in 1989 when he was pitching for Texas. It’s his best record against any major league team.

“He’s pitching as well as you can pitch,” Manager Lou Piniella said. “And at the same time, our offense came alive.”

Carlos Guillen went three for four with a home run, two runs batted in and three runs scored. He missed hitting for the cycle by a triple. John Olerud homered and doubled for Seattle.

Guillen sat out for most of the playoffs last season with tuberculosis, but says he’s 100% healthy now.

“I’ve never hit for the cycle,” he said. “It was a good chance for me. I feel really comfortable.”

Moyer gave up two singles to Chris Singleton, who extended his career-best hitting streak to 15 games.

After giving up a fourth-inning single to Tony Batista, Moyer retired 11 consecutive batters before Mike Bordick singled in the eighth. Moyer gave up five hits, no walks and struck out two in eight innings.

New York 14, Boston 5--Alfonso Soriano hit two of the Yankees’ season-high six home runs as they split a four-game series at Boston.

Soriano led off consecutive innings with home runs to give him 14 this season, tying Texas’ Alex Rodriguez for the AL lead.

Jason Giambi and Robin Ventura hit three-run homers, and Jorge Posada and Ron Coomer had two-run shots as the Yankees hit at least six homers for the 16th time. New York leads the majors with 82 homers in 51 games.

Detroit 9, Chicago 2--Adam Bernero pitched eight innings for his first career victory and Robert Fick went four for five with four RBIs for the Tigers at Chicago.

Bernero (1-0), making his first major league start since 2000 and fifth of his career, held the majors’ top offense in check, limiting the White Sox to two runs, four hits and one walk.

Oakland 7, Tampa Bay 0--Barry Zito gave up two hits over seven innings at Oakland and Adam Piatt homered twice as the Athletics completed a three-game sweep of the Devil Rays.

Zito (5-2) won his fourth consecutive decision and extended his home winning streak to 12.

Cleveland 3, Toronto 1--Bartolo Colon pitched a four-hitter and the Indians completed a three-game sweep at Toronto.

Colon (6-3) gave up only an unearned run and struck out five in his third complete game of the season.

Jim Thome hit his 11th homer as the Indians sent Toronto to its fifth loss in six games.

Kansas City 7-9, Texas 5-8--At Kansas City, Mo., Cory Bailey became the first pitcher in Royal history to win both ends of a doubleheader.

Bailey (2-4) doubled his victory total of the previous five years, pitching a scoreless ninth in the first game, then getting two outs in the sixth inning of the nightcap.