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Orioles strike first in Beltway battle

May 17, 2008 - 3:04 AM By Rich Dubroff PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- The Baltimore Orioles are making a habit of coming from behind.

Brian Roberts had two hits and scored twice to lead the Orioles to a 5-3 win over the Washington Nationals on Friday night in an interleague battle between regional rivals.

For the third straight game, the Orioles - who have won six of their last seven games - fell behind early but still managed to come out ahead.

"Obviously, it's not the way you want to draw it up, playing from behind all the time, but you've got to do an awful lot of little things right to get yourself back in," Baltimore manager Dave Trembley said.

The Orioles won despite falling behind, 2-0, as Garrett Olson (3-0) allowed hits to the first three batters he faced. But Olson, who yielded three runs and nine hits, was helped by a sparkling performance from the Orioles' bullpen.

Matt Albers pitched two scoreless frames before Jim Johnson struck out the side in the eighth. George Sherrill worked a perfect ninth for his 16th save of the season.

"You don't look forward to those outings, but sometimes it happens," Olson said. "I didn't feel like I had my sharpest stuff out there tonight, but I just tried to keep attacking the zone. When that happens, you have your defense behind you. It could be a long day, but everybody played great behind me, the offense picked me up and we were able to get through it."

When Olson finished the fifth, the game was tied at 3-3. Roberts led off the bottom of the inning with a triple off Shawn Hill (0-1) that caromed off the right field wall, past Elijah Dukes and back toward the infield.

Melvin Mora followed with a double that fell in front of center fielder Lastings Milledge to score Roberts, giving Baltimore its first lead.

"We didn't play a good defensive game," Washington manager Manny Acta said. "We misplayed that ball off the wall, and the ball to Milledge was in the air for a long time. It should have been caught."

Three batters later, Kevin Millar made it 5-3 with an RBI single.

"We just fight to the end, and anything can happen because anybody here can swing the bat," Mora said. "We don't have a guy hitting .340 right now, but every day, it's a different hero, and we've got a pretty good bullpen."

Olson appeared as if he would need a lot of help as he quickly fell behind. Felipe Lopez led off the game with a single and advanced to third on a double by Cristian Guzman before both scored on Ryan Zimmerman's base hit to left.

Baltimore tied it at 2-2 in the third. With the bases loaded and one out, Nick Markakis bounced to third baseman Zimmerman, who forced out Mora at second.

But second baseman Lopez's relay throw to first was wild, allowing two runs to score.

Washington took the lead in the fourth, when Dukes lifted a sacrifice fly. But Luke Scott belted a solo homer with one out in the bottom of the inning to knot the contest at 3-3.

Hill allowed five runs - four earned - and eight hits in five innings. The loss was his first decision in six starts.

"Balls fall in - that's going to happen," Hill said. "It's my job to go back out there and make pitches."