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Orioles offense looks to keep rolling against Indians

Sep 9, 2008 - 12:18 PM Cleveland (69-73) at Baltimore (64-78), 7:05 pm EDT

BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Suffering through an eight-game losing streak, the Baltimore Orioles desperately needed a break. The struggling Cleveland Indians' pitching staff sure gave them one.

Coming off an offensive explosion in the opener, the Orioles hope to keep their bats rolling as they continue a four-game set with the Indians on Tuesday at Camden Yards.

Losers of 15 of their last 18, Baltimore was propelled by Aubrey Huff and Adam Jones in its 14-3 romp. Huff is enjoying a rejuvenating season with 102 RBI and isn't far off from his career highs in home runs (34) and RBI (107) set in 2003 when he was with Tampa Bay.

A night after receiving an encouraging outing from youngster Garrett Olson, the Orioles look for similar results from Radhames Liz (5-4, 7.91 ERA). Liz will take the mound in place of Jeremy Guthrie, who will miss his start due to the flu.

The Indians counter with Jeremy Sowers (2-8, 5.97), who has one win since July 19.

The 25-year-old lefthander has thrown at least six innings in six of his last 10 starts, but has given up four or more runs in five of those efforts.

Sowers will, however, may receive some extra help from a revamped lineup that recently got catcher Victor Martinez back from injury and expects to activate designated hitter Travis Hafner before the game.

Hafner, who homered and drove in three runs for Akron on Saturday night as they advanced in the Eastern League playoffs, is scheduled to join the team in Baltimore, according to a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Hafner's 20-day rehab assignment ended Saturday.

He's been on the disabled list since May 30 with a strained right shoulder. Before that, he batted .217 with four homers and 22 RBI - a stark contrast to the numbers produced in 2006 when he belted a career-high 42 homers and drove in 117 RBI.