Tribe Rally To Ground Orioles

Call it A Walk in the Rain.

Cleveland received five walks in a seven-run fifth inning, and Jim Thome homered and scored four runs as the Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles 15-7 Sunday.

The start of the game was delayed 1 hour, 29 minutes by rain. There was also a 17-minute rain delay in the second inning, and dark clouds hovered over the stadium for much of the day.

The game itself lasted 3:30, in part because Baltimore pitchers issued 10 walks and Cleveland walked four. Eight of the 10 base on balls allowed by the Orioles turned into runs, while half the batters walked by Cleveland ended up crossing the plate.

Manny Ramirez hit his 38th homer for the Indians, who overcame a poor outing by starter Dwight Gooden to win for the sixth time in seven games.

Gooden gave up seven runs, eight hits and two walks in 3 1-3 innings. He has a 7.41 ERA over his last 12 starts, and Indians manager Mike Hargrove is considering once again removing him from the rotation.

"I don't want to say yes or no," Hargrove said. "Doc was just behind a lot of hitters. Doc's got good stuff when he's in the strike zone, but today he wasn't."

Jim Brower (1-0), making his major league debut, blanked the Orioles on two hits in 4 1-3 innings.

"It's a thrill," he said. "I thought I was wasting my time warming up; it just happened with the rain and the situation, I got a chance to pitch."

Jeff Conine drove in four runs for the Orioles, who fell to 1-8 against the Indians this season. Baltimore pitcher issued at least one walk to every Cleveland starter except cater Elmar Diaz.

Cleveland trailed 7-5 in the fifth before scoring seven runs on only three hits, two of them singles. Sidney Ponson walked the first three batters before Thome hit a two-run single off B.J. Ryan. Richie Sexson then walked and former Oriole Harold Baines hit a two-run single for a 9-7 lead.

Travis Fryman walked before Dave Roberts hit a sacrifice fly and Omar Vizquel doubled in two runs.

Sexson hit a three-run double in the eighth.

Ponson (11-11) failed in his fifth straight attempt at victory No. 12, allowing eight runs, six hits and five walks in four-plus innings. In three starts against Cleveland this season he is 0-3 with a 13.17 ERA.

"He's getting close to 190 innings and we maybe might want to shut him down for one start if we can," Miller said.

A two-run single by Conine gave Baltimore a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but the Indians tied it in the second on a double-play grounder and an RBI single by Roberts.

Cleveland went up 5-2 in the third. After shortstop Mike Bordick failed to handle a grounder in the sloppy infield, Ramirez homered off the right-field foul pole. Thome then hit a 3-2 pitch that soared over the right-field scoreboard, landed on Eutaw St. and hit the warehouse on one bounce.

Albert Belle hit an RBI double and Conine followed with a run-scoring grounder in the bottom of the inning.

The Orioles took a 7-5 lead in the fourth. After two walks and a single loaded the bases, Gooden threw a wild pitch. B.J. Surhoff then hit a sacrifice fly and Conine doubled in a run for a short-lived 7-5 lead.

"We scored and I give it back up," Ponson said. "Of course, the walks hurt me. With a good hitting team like this, you cannot give them any free passes."

Hargrove was surprised the game got that far. After a hard rain stopped the game in the second, he figured the teams were through for the day.

"I thought when that rain hit and they took us off the field, that was it," he said. "I was surprised when it stopped and we didn't have more interruptions. I was glad we didn't."

Notes