M’S Throw Away Another One Mesa Tries For Dp, Instead Wild Toss Allows Surhoff To Race Home In 10Th Orioles 5 Mariners 4 (10)

Cal Ripken continued his late-season charge toward 3,000 hits, and as a result the Baltimore Orioles once again defeated the reeling Seattle Mariners.

Ripken homered and drove in three runs, and B.J. Surhoff scored the winning run in the 10th inning on a throwing error by Jose Mesa as the Orioles completed their first four-game sweep of the Mariners with a 5-4 victory Monday night.

Ripken hit a two-run homer in the second and a sacrifice fly in the sixth. He was 1 for 2 with two walks and needs 18 hits the final 18 games to reach 3,000 career hits this season. He just might make it - he has nine hits in his last five games and is 14 for 42 in 12 games since being activated from the disabled list Sept. 1.

“I’m just trying to ride a pretty good feeling,” Ripken said. “I got off the disabled list hoping to be where I left off a month ago.”

Baltimore has won seven straight, matching its season high. The Orioles are 32-25 since the All-Star break but 68-76 overall.

Surhoff led off the 10th with a single off Mesa (2-6). Surhoff advanced on a fly ball by Albert Belle and Ripken was walked intentionally. Jeff Conine hit a comebacker to Mesa, who threw the ball into center trying for a double play, allowing Surhoff to score without a throw to the plate.

“I was yelling, `Two! Two! Two!’ and he (Mesa) looked like he caught it and all of a sudden froze,” Seattle catcher Tom Lampkin said.

Rookie B.J. Ryan (1-0) earned his first major league win by working 1-1/3 hitless innings, striking out three, including Ken Griffey Jr. in the ninth.

“What a great feeling this is. It’s something you dream about your whole life,” Ryan said.

The Mariners trailed 4-2 in the ninth before Russ Davis singled and David Bell hit a one-out homer off former Mariner Mike Timlin, who suffered his first blown save in 13 chances since July 1.

Davis had three hits, including his career-high 21st home run, and Edgar Martinez went 3 for 3 for the Mariners, who have lost seven of nine. Griffey was 2 for 14 in the series with no RBIs.

The Mariners squandered all sorts of scoring chances, twice leaving the bases loaded.

“You know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see a bases-clearing double once in a while,” manager Lou Piniella said. “In the gap somewhere, so I could see people run all around the bases.”

The Mariners still had a chance to win - until Mesa got his hands on Conine’s grounder.

“That was a perfect double-play ball, a one-hopper,” Piniella said. “When he hit it, I thought we were out of the inning. We were.”

Seattle went up 1-0 in the second when Martinez doubled and scored on a two-out single by Dan Wilson. Baltimore took the lead in the bottom half when Belle walked and Ripken lined a 2-1 pitch into the left-field seats, his 17th homer of the season and 401st of his career.

Ripken hit a bases-loaded fly in the bottom of the sixth. Davis answered with a solo shot in the seventh, but Charles Johnson doubled in a run in the Orioles’ half to chase Seattle starter Gil Meche.

Orioles 5, Mariners 4 (10)

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. DaBell 2b 5 1 1 2 0 2 .262 Ibanez 1b-rf 4 0 1 0 1 0 .248 Griffey Jr cf 5 0 1 0 0 1 .293 ARodriguez ss 5 0 0 0 0 3 .291 EMartinez dh 3 1 3 0 1 0 .342 1-Monahan pr-dh 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 c-Timmons ph-dh 1 0 0 0 0 0 .133 Buhner rf 3 0 0 0 1 0 .230 2-RJackson pr-1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 .256 d-Blowers ph-1b 0 0 0 0 1 0 .273 DWilson c 3 0 1 1 0 1 .262 a-Lampkin ph-c 2 0 0 0 0 2 .294 RDavis 3b 4 2 3 1 0 0 .245 BLHunter lf 3 0 1 0 1 0 .239 Totals 38 4 11 4 5 9

Baltimore AB R H BI BB SO Avg. ByAnderson lf 4 0 0 0 1 0 .288 Bordick ss 4 1 0 0 1 0 .274 Surhoff dh 5 1 3 0 0 0 .319 Belle rf 3 1 1 0 2 0 .299 Ripken 3b 2 1 1 3 2 0 .334 3-Reboulet pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 .171 Conine 1b 5 0 0 0 0 0 .302 Kingsale cf 4 1 3 0 0 0 .359 Hairston jr. 2b 2 0 0 0 0 0 .267 CJohnson c 3 0 1 1 0 1 .240 b-May ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .269 Figga c 0 0 0 0 0 0 .235 Totals 33 5 9 4 6 1

Seattle 010 000 102 0 - 4

Baltimore 020 001 100 1 - 5

One out when winning run scored.

a-struck out for Wilson in the 8th. b-grounded out for C.Johnson in the 9th. c-grounded out for Monahan in the 10th. d-walked for Jackson in the 10th.

1-ran for Martinez in the 8th. 2-ran for Buhner in the 8th. 3-ran for Ripken Jr. in the 10th.

E-Mesa (1). LOB-Seattle 9, Baltimore 9. 2B-EMartinez (30), Kingsale (2), CJohnson (17). 3B-Griffey Jr (3). HR-DaBell (19) off Timlin; RDavis (21) off Ponson; Ripken (17) off Meche. RBIs-DaBell 2 (68), DWilson (32), RDavis (59), Ripken 3 (54), CJohnson (51). CS-BLHunter (8). S-Hairston jr. 2. SF-Ripken. GIDP-Buhner, Conine.

Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 4 (ARodriguez 2, Lampkin 2); Baltimore 3 (Bordick 2, Conine).

Runners moved up-BLHunter, Belle, May.

DP-Seattle 2 (BLHunter, ARodriguez and DaBell), (ARodriguez and RJackson); Baltimore 1 (Ripken, Hairston jr. and Conine).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Meche 6-1/3 5 4 4 4 1 104 5.48 Sinclair 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 5 7.98 Davey 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 5 4.90 Mesa L,2-6 2-1/3 4 1 0 2 0 28 5.43

Baltimore IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Ponson 6-1/3 8 2 2 2 5 111 4.37 AReyes 2/3 0 0 0 1 0 12 4.24 Orosco 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 1 5.76 Kamieniecki 2/3 1 0 0 1 1 17 5.80 Timlin 2/3 2 2 2 0 0 9 3.93 Ryan W,1-0 1-1/3 0 0 0 1 3 27 4.50

AReyes pitched to 1 batter in the 8th.

Inherited runners-scored-Sinclair 1-0, Davey 1-0, AReyes 1-0, Orosco 1-0, Kamieniecki 1-0.

IBB-off Mesa (Ripken) 1, off Mesa (ByAnderson) 1.

T-3:26. A-40,756 (48,876).