Orioles' offense comes to life in victory

June 25, 2010

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Miguel Tejada had a season-high four hits, ended a long home run drought and drove in four runs to lead the Baltimore Orioles past the Florida Marlins 11-5 Thursday night.

Tejada singled in a run and scored in the third inning, singled in the fourth, singled and scored in the sixth and hit a three-run homer in the seventh. The drive ended a career-long streak of 205 at-bats without a home run.

Coming into the game, Tejada had only one RBI in his last 99 at-bats.

Adam Jones had three hits and a homer, and backup catcher Craig Tatum had a career-high three hits for the Orioles, who previously had reached double figures in runs only once -- on May 1 in a 12-9 win over Boston.

Florida's three-game winning streak ended under a barrage of 17 hits, including seven in a five-run third inning. The Marlins are 1-1 under interim manager Edwin Rodriguez, who took over when Fredi Gonzalez was fired Wednesday.

Dan Uggla had four hits and three RBIs for Florida, denied its first interleague sweep since taking three games from Baltimore at home last year.

Marlins starter Nate Robertson (5-6) gave up five runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings, his shortest outing since July 19, 2008, when he got only seven outs against the Orioles.

Kevin Millwood (2-8) won his second straight start despite throwing 116 pitches in only five innings. The right-hander allowed four runs and eight hits in earning his first home win since joining Baltimore in a trade with Texas last offseason.

Millwood fell into a familiar pattern by giving up two first-inning runs. Chris Coghlan hit a leadoff double and scored on a single by Hanley Ramirez, who stole second and came home on a two-out single by Uggla.

After blanking the opposition in the first inning of his initial nine starts, Millwood has yielded 20 first-inning runs in his last seven appearances.

The second inning went only slightly better for Millwood: Doubles by Ronny Paulino and Gaby Sanchez made it 3-0.

But the Orioles took the lead for good in the third, sending 10 batters to the plate and getting six straight hits for the first time since Sept. 24, 2008, against Tampa Bay. After Julio Lugo, Tejada and Ty Wigginton delivered RBI singles, Luke Scott hit a sacrifice fly and Jones doubled in a run.

Uggla hit an RBI single in the fifth, but Jones homered off rookie Alex Sanabia in the bottom half. Scott added an RBI double in the sixth, and Tejada connected off James Houser in the seventh to make it 10-4.

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