Royals 4, Orioles 3

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Desi Relaford hit a go-ahead RBI double in the sixth, and the Kansas City Royals snapped a five-game losing skid with a 4-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Rookie Mike Wood (1-0) earned his first victory since coming over in the three-team trade last Thursday that sent Royals star Carlos Beltran to Houston.

Shawn Camp pitched the ninth for his first major league save, sending the Orioles to their 12th loss in 16 games.

Since Beltran’s first-inning homer last Thursday against Detroit, the Royals had not held a lead in 49 straight innings until Tony Graffanino’s bloop single off Sidney Ponson made it 2-1 in the fifth.

Ponson (3-11) gave up four runs on nine hits in 5 2-3 innings in his eighth straight loss. Ponson is the only pitcher in the majors with 11 losses.

Wood, who had two wins last year with Seattle, went six innings and gave up three runs on seven hits, with three strikeouts and no walks.

The Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the third on doubles by Jerry Hairston and David Newhan, who was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

The Royals tied it 1-1 in the fourth on Matt Stairs’ run-scoring grounder.

After Graffanino’s single in the fifth, Mike Sweeney’s RBI single made it 3-1.

In the sixth, Miguel Tejada tripled and scored on Rafael Palmeiro’s RBI grounder and Javy Lopez hit Wood’s next pitch for his 10th homer, tying it at 3.

Notes: Royals 3B Joe Randa underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and will be out for at least a month. … Closer Jeremy Affeldt was elected Royals’ player representative. … The Orioles placed OF Jay Gibbons on the 15-day DL with a left hip flexor strain and will purchase the contract of OF Chad Mottola from Triple-A Ottawa. … The Orioles gave up three walks to raise their league-leading total to 330.

AP-ES-06-29-04 2303EDT