''The only positive that we take out of the whole series is that we're going into the break in first place for the first time since 1995," said Johnny Damon, who with a ninth-inning bunt single extended his hitting streak to 25 games, longest in the majors this season, but could not jump-start an offense held to a single run in all three losses here.
''We've got New York when we get back, and we definitely need to be ready to play back at Fenway."
The short view, as the Sox send five players and manager Francona to the All-Star Game, is that by succumbing to perennial nemesis Rodrigo Lopez, who held them to three hits, including Trot Nixon's ninth home run, in eight innings, they allowed the Orioles to right themselves just when they appeared to be in free fall.
The Orioles, who had not won any of their previous five series and started last week with back-to-back defeats to the Yankees in which the Bombers scored 13 and 12 runs, pulled within two games of the Sox. The Yankees, winners of seven of their last eight after taking three of four from the Indians, are 2 1/2 back, and as erratic as they've been, no one expected they'd be midterm dropouts.
But now the Orioles have made clear their intentions of sticking around, pecking away with enough persistence against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield to score single runs from the fourth through seventh innings, plenty for Lopez, who racked up his 10th career win against the Sox.
''I think they knew that already," said Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, who homered in each of the last three games here, drawing to within two hits of the 3,000-plateau, and also knocked in the Orioles' first run with a sacrifice fly. ''I think the message has been sent to the whole league that we're here to stay. Everybody goes through a little bad streak. It's going to happen, but I think we're good enough to be around all the way through."
