European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 14, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday april 14 2007 stars and stripes Page 37 Birds of a Feather bats finally come through for run starved pitchers the associated press Baltimore Kevin Millar served As the disc jockey playing Raunchy tunes in the Baltimore orioles clubhouse at an earsplitting volume while several team mates Sang along such antics dont often occur so Early in the sea son yet the Ori Oles Felt compelled to Cele brate because for a change they didst let a Fine pitching performance go to waste Jay Gibbons hit a base loaded single with two outs in the 10th in Ning thursday night and Balti More slipped past the Kansas City royals 21 to escape last place in the Al East the orioles had scored Only three runs in 33 innings before Gibbons delivered his third hit of the game an opposite Field single to left off Jason Standridge our pitching has been Awe some bullpen and starters and were just Happy to get a win for them tonight Gibbons said if s huge our pitching has been great and weve been wasting opportunities for them so we needed a win two innings before his Gam winning single Gibbons fouled out with two on and two outs it a soft the first time this season he stranded runners on base late in the game and the last thing he needed was to botch an other Opportunity asked in the jubilant clubhouse if he Felt redemption for failing to deliver in the eighth Gibbons re plied i was trying not to think about that in the 10th if s just been kind of Arough Start Ive had a lot of situations like that and didst come through so it Felt Good to hit that Ball in play Only 13229 showed up on a Chilly night at Camden Yards the second smallest crowd in the history of the 16yearold stadium Kan Sas City entered in last place in the Al Central Baltimore owned the same spot in the Al East if our pitching has been great and weve wasting opportunities for them so we needed a win Jay Gibbons Baltimore orioles outfielder Brian Roberts led off the 10th with a double and took third on a bunt by Melvin Mora after Nick Markakis and Miguel Tejada received intentional walks Aubrey Huff bit into a Force out at the plate before Gibbons stepped in Chris Ray 11 worked a perfect 10th to win it Kansas City starter Gil Meche left with a mild right hamstring Strain after blanking the orioles on seven hits Over six innings that More than the defeat both ered royals manager buddy Bell theres a couple reasons Why if s disappointing we lost but were not quite sure what s going on with Gil right now Bell said his hamstring were anxious to see where that is we think if s fairly mild but Well get a better diagnosis tomorrow Meche said he Felt a twinge while throwing a six thinning cur Zeball to Huff who struck out to end the inning i just  risk going Back out there and maybe doing some bad damage to it he said Steve Trachsel gave up one run and three hits in seven innings but  get enough support to earn his first Victory with Balti More Trachsel who has a 263 Era in two starts kept Kansas City Hiti Ess until Ross Gload led off the fifth with a Bloop single to Center John Buck opened the sixth with the royals second bit a Dou ble he remained there until Mark Grudzielanek blooded a two out rib single for a 10 Lead Paul Bako tied it with an rib double in the seventh i fians 4 Angels 2 at Milwaukee Travis Hafer hit a three run Homer in the eighth in Ning to Send Cleveland Back to Jacobs Field with a Victory in its Home stand away from Home the indians took two out of three in the series which was moved from Cleveland to Milwaukee after Snow wiped out a fou game series against Seattle the indians were scheduled to play a Home opener against the Chicago White sox on Friday night Scott Shields 01 walked the first two batters in the eighth be fore Hafer homered Aaron Fultz 20 got one out and Joe by rows pitched me ninth for his third save tigers 5 Blue jays 4 Brandon Inge homered and drove in three runs and Mike Maroth 20 limited Host Toronto to two runs and nine hits in six innings As Detroit won for the fifth time in six games Joel Zumaya pitched two innings for his first save Tomo Ohka 01 allowed five runs four earned and eight hits in six innings twins 3 Devil rays 2 Justin Morneau homered off Brian Stokes 02 leading off the Bot Tom of the ninth Tampa Bays Ben Zobrist led off the top of the ninth with a sin Gle off Joe Nathan and Carl Crawford lined a double into the Brightfield Corner Crawford headed for third after Zobrist stopped at the bag and the teammates met each other on the base As Michael cud dyers throw from right Field was Cut off by second baseman Luis Castillo Castillo turned and threw Home to Catcher Joe Mauer who chased Down Zobrist and tagged him out Crawford broke Back for second and Mauer threw him out for a 9426 double play Gail Baltimore Jay Gibbons left is congratulated by teammate Aubrey Huff after driving in the winning run in the Bottom of the both inning thursday night in the orioles 21 Victory Over the Kansas City royals nationals finally get a Lead then make it stand up by George Henry the associated press Atlanta the Washington nationals took a Lead during a game and won it too Ronnie Belliard hit a godhead single in the eighth inning off John Smoltz and Washington beat the Atlanta braves 20 thursday night to Stop a six game losing Streak the first thing i heard right next to my ear was Ryan Church saying we got a Lead nation als manager Manny Acta said there was still a lot of game left but that was refreshing to hear Ryan Zimmerman had an rib single for the nationals who were yet to Lead in a game this sea son at the time a pitch was thrown their Only previous Victory came on Dmitri Youngs Gam ending single that capped a three run ninth inning in a 76 Vic tory Over the visiting Florida mar Lins on april 4 i try to pitch to the situation but this team was not going to keep losing the Way it was los ing Smoltz said tonight they bowed their necks and won a game that could Start something Good for them Washington has been out scored 6123 this season and Hast scored during the first three innings of any game it was great Church said we stuck together and just kept grinding it out Jason Bergmann struck out a career High eight in six innings allowing just one hit a Lead off double in the fourth by Andrew Jones Bergmann who walked four lasted just innings against Arizona in his previous Start that Felt Good for the team Bergmann said that s some thing we needed facing a Guy a legend John Smoltz i want to say i needed it a lot for myself conf Dence Wise but i think the team needed it More than me Jesus Colome i0 pitched a perfect seventh Jon Rauch had a 123 eighth and Chad Cordero finished the two hitter for his first save Chipper Jones singled with one out in the ninth and Andrew Jones walked after Brian Mccann took a called third strike Jeff Francoeur loaded the bases for Scott Thorman who struck out Cordero was so excited that he almost tripped when he jumped to celebrate and came Down awk Wardly on right foot if i had blown this it would have been devastating to me and to the whole team Cordero said out in the bullpen we were All real excited i was pumped up be cause i thought id have a Chance to close a game for once Smoltz 11 gave up four hits and four walks two intentional in eight innings striking out six to reach 2795 three behind by Young for 18th on the career list he is 169 against the nation expos in 35 starts Atlanta had won its previous four games the game was scoreless when Smoltz hit Chris Snelling with a pitch leading off the eighth Snel Ling was sacrificed to second and after a walk to Felipe Lopez took third on a wild pitch Belliard and Zimmerman Fol Lowed with consecutive singles that snapped a Streak of 25 consecutive scoreless innings for braves starters you know sooner or later things Are going to go their Way Smoltz said i mean i hit him right on the toe but even then i thought i would be Fine then i threw the wild pitch that made it pretty Tough then i had to be perfect Belliard whom Acta moved from lower in the batting order to the no 2 spot has a 406 average with three Bis in 32 a bats weve been hitting the Ball real hard All Over the place and Haven had any Luck Belliard said in always going to right Field no matter what the Situa Tion