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BALTIMORE - Here's something Cory Lidle should consider the next time he faces Jeff Conine: intentional walk.
Conine hit two homers and drove in five runs, and Sidney Ponson pitched eight strong innings to earn his 11th win as the Orioles breezed past the slumping Blue Jays 9-2 Saturday night.
Conine's first homer, a three-run shot, put Baltimore up 3-0 in the third. He added a two-run homer in the fourth to make it 7-0.
Both home runs were against Lidle, who allowed seven runs and 10 hits in 32/3 innings. Conine is 11-for-16 with three homers and eight RBIs lifetime against Lidle.
"It's one of the things in baseball you can't really explain," Conine said. "Some guys, it just seems you have better luck against and just see the ball better against them. I guess he happens to be one of those guys."
Lidle also failed to come up with a logical explanation for his lack of success against Conine.
"If I knew I'd change it. I don't know," the right-hander said.
Brook Fordyce also homered and AL batting leader Melvin Mora was 4-for-4 to help the Orioles extend their winning streak to four - tying a season high.
Baltimore will seek its first four-game sweep of Toronto since 1979 today. The Orioles are 5-4 against the Blue Jays after going 4-15 last season.
Ponson allowed two runs and seven hits, striking out four and walking none. The right-hander's 11 wins are the most by an Oriole before the All-Star break since Mike Mussina won 11 in 1999.
Ponson is 10-3 in his past 13 starts and is within one victory of matching his career high of 12 wins in 1999. He has not had a winning season since breaking into the majors in 1998.
MARINERS 3, RANGERS 2 (10): Dan Wilson hit a run-scoring single in the 10th for visiting Seattle.
Randy Winn greeted reliever Ugueth Urbina with a single to open the 10th. Winn went to second on Jeff Cirillo's sacrifice bunt and raced home on Wilson's bloop single over the head of second baseman Michael Young.
Rafael Soriano pitched a scoreless ninth for his first major-league victory. Shigetoshi Hasegawa got three outs for his third save.
Juan Gonzalez hit a two-run homer, his 20th, and Kevin Mench was 3-for-4 for Texas.
Mariners starter Jamie Moyer gave up two runs and nine hits over 62/3 innings in a no-decision a day before he finds out whether he'll get his first All-Star selection. Moyer, Seattle's leader with 11 wins, struck out three and walked one.
Texas' John Thomson also turned in a strong start, allowing two runs and six hits over seven innings. He struck out five and walked one.
The Mariners have a major league-best 31-14 road record and are 3-3 on the current road trip. Seattle hasn't had a losing trip this season.
ANGELS 6, ATHLETICS 3: Tim Salmon homered twice and Ramon Ortiz won for the sixth time in seven starts for visiting Anaheim.
Salmon connected on a 2-0 pitch from Aaron Harang for a three-run homer in the first, sending the ball deep into centerfield. Eric Byrnes jumped at the wall to try to make the catch but had no chance. Salmon had homered only four times in his past 54 games and hit .215 in June.
Then, with the Angels leading 4-0, he led off the fifth with a shot off John Halama for his 13th homer of the season. It was Salmon's second multihomer game this year, both against the A's. It was the 20th multihomer game of his career.
Ortiz retired 11 of the first 13 batters before Eric Chavez led off the fifth with his 17th homer. The A's added another run in the inning on Frank Menechino's single.
INDIANS 13, TWINS 2: Casey Blake was 5-for-5 with two homers and seven RBIs against his former team, leading visiting Cleveland past struggling Minnesota.
Matt Lawton - another former Twin - and Milton Bradley homered for the Indians, who got seven solid innings from starter Brian Anderson.
The left-hander won his third straight decision, allowing two runs and six hits, four for extra bases. He walked two and struck out four.
Matthew LeCroy and Corey Koskie homered for the Twins, who have lost 15 of 21.
Blake set career highs for hits and RBIs. He hit a two-run double off Joe Mays in the first, a run-scoring single in the third and a double in the fifth. Blake added a homer off Grant Balfour in the seventh and a three-run shot off J.C. Romero in the ninth.
TIGERS 9, ROYALS 5: Dmitri Young and Kevin Witt hit home runs and Alex Sanchez drove in three runs with his first homer in 307 at-bats for visiting Detroit.
The Tigers, whose 21-64 record is the worst in the major leagues, have hit seven home runs in their past two games and 12 in the past seven. Sanchez's shot in the fourth was the second of his career and put the Tigers on top 6-0 in the fourth.
Mike Maroth gave up four runs and eight hits in 72/3 innings, striking out two and walking three, to win for the third time in four decisions.