Orioles freeze Sox // Bats fall silent as win string ends at 8

ORIOLES 3 WHITE SOX 0

When White Sox manager Jeff Torborg looked across the fieldFriday at Comiskey Park, he didn't see a bunch of battered,absolutely underwhelming Baltimore Orioles.

He saw trouble.

"They're dangerous," he said.

Turns out Torborg was right.

The sixth-place Orioles not only stopped the White Sox'eight-game winning streak, they stopped them cold on a night when thegame-time temperature was a sizzling 99 degrees.

The final was 3-0.

That's right, nothing from a team that had poured 72 runs acrossthe plate in the last eight games to just 36 for the opponents.

It took five Orioles pitchers to do the job, beginning with BenMcDonald (5-5) and winding up with Gregg Olson (23rd save).

Alex Fernandez (5-8), who lasted 6 2/3 innings, was the loser.

"A hit here and there and we would have been right back in thegame," said Tim Raines, who had a hit and two stolen bases. "But itjust wasn't to be tonight. It wasn't so much Ben McDonald because wehad the opportunities. We just didn't cash in on them."

To be sure, the Sox left 11 runners on base, starting with thefirst inning when they had the bases loaded with one out.

McDonald, who threw 106 pitches in 5 2/3 innings, got CarltonFisk on a popup to third baseman Leo Gomez and then struck out WarrenNewson.

"What goes around comes around in this game," said McDonald,who has been on the disabled twice this season with elbow problems."It's just a matter of time before I turn this around. I hopetonight is the beginning of something good."

McDonald, who noted that he pitched against Frank Thomas whenboth were in in college and that he was on the '88 Olympic team withRobin Ventura, said he made up his mind how he was going to pitch theSox while he watched them score 13 runs Thursday against the TexasRangers.

"I made the big pitches when I had to," McDonald said.

That he did.

"He (McDonald) was all messed up in the first," Orioles managerJohnny Oates said. "In the second, he made some corrections andpitched great."

Fernandez was just as good until the Orioles broke thescoreless tie in the fifth.

Randy Milligan led off with a single before Chito Martinezlined a double into the left-field corner.

"He (Martinez) hit a good pitch," Fernandez said. "I didn'twant to give in and walk him."

After Gomez walked to load the bases, Bob Melvin lifted asacrifice fly to center that scored Milligan and sent Martinez tothird.

Juan Bell then hit what seemed to be a perfect double-play ballto Ozzie Guillen. The shortstop stepped on second, but his relaythrow to first pulled Dan Pasqua off the bag. Pasqua took a swipe atBell but missed.

The Orioles scored their last run in the sixth, when Joe Orsulakled off with a triple and scored on Cal Ripken's sacrifice fly.

"I thought I pitched well tonight," Fernandez said. "It's nota big deal that we lost a game.

"I'll bounce back and pitch even better next time out, and we'll come back as a team, too."

The Sox finally got rid of McDonald in the sixth, but they againfailed to score after putting runners on first and third with twoouts.

Oates brought in lefty Mike Flanagan, and Torborg responded bysending up Craig Grebeck to bat for Lance Johnson.

Grebeck, one of the many Sox heroes in recent weeks, was calledout on strikes to end the inning.

"Good pitching will stop the hottest-hitting team," Torborgsaid. "Tonight, they had the pitching. We had our chances, but theydid a nice job of shutting us down." Box score, Page 77.