BALTIMORE, Aug. 9 -- Suddenly, surprisingly, the Orioles look almost unbeatable.
Their record may still be disappointing by the standards set in the offseason, but the Orioles have won seven in a row -- sweeping their seven-game homestand with a 7-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Monday before a crowd of 39,850.
Orioles' Melvin Mora gets a pat from pitcher Sidney Ponson after his second home run of the game, giving him a career-high 20. Mora has driven in seven runs in the past two games.
(Joe Giza -- Reuters)
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The Orioles are four games under .500 (53-57) and are in third place in the American League East, tied with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Baltimore, which had not swept a seven-game homestand since September 1969, has its longest winning streak since taking 13 straight in 1999.
"I think the guys have kind of seen the light," Manager Lee Mazzilli said. "We're healthy, got good pitching, timely hitting."
Especially timely has been the return of third baseman Melvin Mora.
He provided both the offense and defense Monday with his 19th and career-high 20th home runs of the season and making an impressive backhanded grab of a ball hit down the line that appeared headed for the left field corner.
After a four-RBI game Sunday, Mora drove in three more Monday with a two-run homer in the first and a solo shot in the fifth.
It was his third career two-home run game and the second this year.
"That was an accident," Mora said of his second homer. "The first one, I just tried to get the run in. I wasn't thinking about hitting a home run."
After the game, Mora said Miguel Tejada had not been feeling well, so he tried to pick up the slack.
The shortstop, who said he had an upset stomach, vomited before he arrived at the ballpark, as well as during the first couple of innings.
"He's a kid that has very quiet hands," Mazzilli said of Mora. "He has an idea exactly what he's looking for, what he wants to do. . . . He's a gap-to-gap type of a hitter, line-drive type of hitter that's patient at the plate."
After struggling in the first inning, Orioles starter Dave Borkowski settled down, giving up two runs on four hits in six innings. In the first he gave up a solo homer to David Dellucci and then escaped a one-out, bases-loaded jam. He retired Brian Jordan on a liner to second base and Ernie Young on a grounder.
