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Gomez's grand slam powers Orioles past Royals

Apr 15, 2007 - 4:10 AM BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- The wet and rainy conditions at Camden Yards had little effect on Chris Gomez and the Baltimore Orioles bullpen.

Gomez gave the Orioles the lead of the game with his sixth-inning grand slam and the bullpen hung on to close out a 6-4 win over the Kansas City Royals.

The 35-year-old utility infielder came to the plate with none out and the bases loaded after Royals starter Odalis Perez was replaced by reliever Joel Peralta.

"In a situation like that,I'm just trying to relax," Gomez said. "It was a big at-bat and I just try to tone it down and get a good pitch to hit."

Gomez promptly launched a pitch into the second row of seats in the left field bleachers to turn a two-run deficit into a two-run lead. Peralta (0-1) suffered the loss.

"I knew I hit it well," Gomez said. "I wasn't sure it was going out, a sacrifice fly would have been OK, too. Either way it was looking good."

It was Gomez's second career grand slam, with the first coming off Boston's Curt Schilling on April 22, 2004.

"I fell behind the hitter and he got me," Peralta said. "That was the game right there."

Four relievers combined to pitch four scoreless innings to close the game. Scott Williamson (1-0) earned the win with a scoreless sixth and Chris Ray pitched a perfect ninth inning for his third save. The bullpen yielded just two hits and struck out eight.

"They did their job," Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo said. "Everything fell into place with the bullpen tonight. I can't say enough about them so far."

Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera allowed seven hits and four runs - three earned - in five innings. The 6-7 righthander, who has a history of control problems, walked only one despite the wet conditions and struck out five.

"I thought Daniel, even though he didn't have his power fastball today, learned how to pitch a little bit," Perlozzo said. "If it weren't for a couple of bad breaks I thought he could have gone deeper in the ballgame."

Perez suffered through his third straight tough outing for the Royals (3-9). Expected to be Kansas City's No. 2 starter this season, the lefthander has allowed four earned runs in each of his three starts and has yet to make it out of the sixth inning.

Miguel Tejada led off the sixth with a single and Aubrey Huff walked, leading to Perez being replaced. Kevin Millar greeted Peralta with a pop-up to short center field that fell in between three fielders to load the bases.

"We had some momentum going in our favor," Royal manager Buddy Bell said. "Odalis made some good pitches when he had to, we got some double plays and he got some key outs when he had to, but the pop fly hit by Millar totally changed the situation. It was the key play of the game, no doubt about it."

Tejada and Millar each had two hits and a run scored for the Orioles (6-6), who reached .500 for the first time since early May of last season.