Orioles Again Conquer Okajima

Red Sox Reliever Surrenders Late Runs: Orioles 10, Red Sox 6

BOSTON, June 10 -- When left-handed reliever Hideki Okajima takes the mound late in games for the Boston Red Sox, it typically signals bad news for opposing teams. But when the opposing team is the Baltimore Orioles, it seems that Okajima has a supporting role in an Orioles comeback.

The latest example came Tuesday, when for the third time this season, Okajima allowed Baltimore to rally for a 10-6 victory, this time before 37,858 on a muggy night at Fenway Park.

With Okajima trying to protect a two-run lead in the seventh inning, Aubrey Huff drove a game-tying, two-run single to right field. Okajima was already out of the game when Kevin Millar's sacrifice fly scored Melvin Mora to put the Orioles ahead to stay. But it was Okajima who put Mora on, one of two walks issued in his short, brutish performance.

"We've been patient against him, and that's the biggest thing," said Huff, who finished 4 for 5.

Four Orioles relievers, led by winner Dennis Sarfate, teamed up to protect the one-run lead and tame the powerful Red Sox lineup. George Sherrill closed things out, a non-save situation because Baltimore tacked on three more runs in the ninth, including Ramón Hernández's two-run double.

"When you're playing on the road and you're playing in this place, you're never going to score enough runs," Orioles Manager Dave Trembley said. "So when you get scoring opportunities, you've got to cash it in."

The formerly road-weary Orioles already had done a good job of making themselves feel at home, despite playing at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox have the best home record in the league. Red Sox starter Josh Beckett allowed a four-run onslaught in the second inning, the big hit coming from Freddie Bynum, whose bases-loaded fly to left would have been an out in any other park. But at suddenly comfortable Fenway, the ball bounced off the Green Monster for a three-run double. By the end of the inning, the Orioles had staked starter Daniel Cabrera to a three-run lead.

But for the second straight outing, he squandered the early advantage, even though for a while it appeared Cabrera would wriggle out of trouble.

Cabrera allowed just one run after he got Manny Ramírez to ground into a bases-loaded double play in the first inning. He let the first two batters he faced in the second reach base but came away unscathed after getting Alex Cora to bounce into a double play.

In the third, Cabrera allowed a pair of runs to let the Red Sox come within one, though he lucked out twice. With two runners on, Ramírez missed sneaking a ball inside of Pesky's Pole in right. One batter later, Cabrera sweated through a Carlton Fisk moment, when Mike Lowell blasted a bases-loaded shot down the left field line, only to watch it drift foul.

"He hung in there," Trembley said. "He could have given up a whole lot more runs if he'd caved in."

But it was only a matter of time before Cabrera would pay.