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BALTIMORE (AP) -
Shane Loux
stood in front of his locker with a satisfied look on his face as he prepared to talk about his second major league victory
- the first since 2003.
''I don't want to wait six years for the next one, I'll tell you that,'' the right-hander said. ''It's been a long time.''
Loux allowed one run in six-plus innings,
Torii Hunter
and
Kendry Morales
hit consecutive homers off
Koji Uehara
in the seventh inning, and the
Los Angeles Angels
beat the
Baltimore Orioles
3-2 Wednesday for a two-game sweep.
Uehara left in the seventh after being struck in the chest by a line drive off the bat of Gary Matthews Jr. After falling
to his knees in obvious pain, Baltimore's first Japanese-born player slowly rose to his feet and walked off the field.
The injury was determined to be a bruised sternum. X-rays were negative.
''No pain,'' Uehara said through an interpreter. ''I'm more upset about giving up that home run.''
Uehara (2-2) allowed one run and four hits before Hunter led off the seventh with his eighth home run. Morales followed by
driving an 0-2 pitch over the center-field wall.
Uehara then retired
Howie Kendrick
on a fly ball before Matthews hit his line drive.
''I couldn't breathe for a moment, but after that I was fine,'' Uehara said.
Loux (1-2) gave up five hits in his first victory since Sept. 24, 2003, with Detroit. It was the fourth start of the season
for the 29-year-old, who entered with a 6.61 ERA.
Since winning that game with Detroit, Loux spent the 2004 season in the minor leagues and did not play in 2005 after undergoing
elbow ligament replacement surgery. He played for Kansas City's minor league system in 2006, pitched briefly for one of Seattle's
minor league teams in 2007 and last year pitched in the minors for the Angels before appearing in seven games with the big
league club.
''It definitely means a lot to get a win under your belt,'' manager
Mike Scioscia
said. ''Shane's put in a lot of hard work the last couple years to get to this level and even have an opportunity to pitch
in the major leagues. I think he has confidence that his stuff plays in the big leagues. He pitched well, and it's good to
see him rewarded.''
Jose Arredondo
yielded an RBI single to
Nick Markakis
in the eighth, and
Brian Fuentes
got three outs for his fifth save - the second in the series.
Los Angeles, which came to town without having won consecutive games, now is on a three-game run.
''It feels good to put a streak together,'' Hunter said.
Baltimore went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The Orioles have lost 11 of 14 following a 6-2 start. and
The Orioles went up 1-0 in the first inning run but were left wanting more after loading the bases with no outs.
Aubrey Huff
delivered a sacrifice fly before
Luke Scott
hit a fly ball and
Ty Wigginton
popped out.
In the second,
Chad Moeller
led off with a triple, his first since September 2005. After
Felix Pie
grounded out to the drawn-up infield, Pie got tagged out in a rundown after
Cesar Izturis
hit a comebacker to Loux.
Two innings, two wasted opportunities.
''That makes it tough to win,'' Moeller said. ''As players, we know we need to execute in those situations, and we didn't.''
After that, Loux changed his approach at the request of Scioscia and pitching coach
Mike Butcher
.
''I re-evaluated and went out with a different game plan. I wasn't getting my sinker across for strikes and when I was, they
were hitting it,'' he said. ''We decided to go more with the cut fastball and slider to set up the sinker.''
Los Angeles tied it in the fourth when
Maicer Izturis
hit a leadoff single and scored on a two-out triple by Morales.
Notes: Markakis went 1-for-3 with a walk, extending his hitting streak to 16 games, one short of his career high. He has reached
base in 31 straight games, the longest current run in the majors. ... Hunter has eight of LA's 19 home runs. He didn't hit
his eighth homer last year until June 9.
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