Baldwin's performance heartening HRs by Ordonez, Simmons help vs. depleted Indians

Sox 6 Indians 3

CLEVELAND James Baldwin's heart is in Chicago. So after the tradedeadline passed with Baldwin staying put, he went out and pitched hisheart out.

Baldwin gave up two runs and two hits in 5 2/3 innings of theWhite Sox' 6-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday. Thatprevented him from suffering his 12th loss, which would have tied theAmerican League leaders.

Baldwin (5-11) earned his first victory in a month before 43,067fans at Jacobs Field.

"J.B. had his third (straight) good outing," Sox manager JerryManuel said. "I thought he pitched as well for four, five innings ashe has all year. He mixed up his pitches, and he got his changeupand curve over."

Until there were two out in the sixth inning, anyway. At thatpoint, Baldwin, who feared he might be traded before the deadlineSaturday, walked Omar Vizquel, gave up his second hit - a home run byRoberto Alomar - and walked Jacob Cruz.

Manuel had seen enough. He called on Sean Lowe, Keith Foulke andBob Howry to do the rest. Brian Simmons and Magglio Ordonez each hithome runs to contribute to the victory.

"I wasn't sure (Baldwin) could regroup in the sixth, so I went toget him," said Manuel, who recalled how Baldwin hung his head afterthe walk to Cruz. "If he was mad at me, I don't know. Maybe he wasmad at himself."

Baldwin, who had a 4-0 lead in the second inning after Simmons'first homer of the season, a two-run double by Chris Singleton and anRBI single by Ordonez, said he was mad at himself for walking Vizquelon a breaking pitch.

"The last thing you want to do against a team like this is putsomeone on the bag because they can put up 10 (runs) in a big hurry,"Baldwin said. "There's no room to breathe with their hitters fromNo. 1 through 9. I should have thrown a fastball. That way, maybeAlomar wouldn't have come up."

Manuel called the selection of the breaking ball "a very bad pitchat that time, a very bad decision."

He also considered Baldwin's pitch count of 100 when he took himout of the game.

The Indians stayed with their starter, Charles Nagy (12-7), foreight innings. Ordonez took advantage, hitting his 25th homer in theseventh inning to increase the Sox' lead to 5-2.

When Lowe gave up a leadoff single in the seventh, Foulke enteredthe game and gave up consecutive singles to Russell Branyan and AlexRamirez before retiring three straight. Howry pitched the ninthinning to earn his 17th save.

Manuel was reluctant to use Howry on Saturday because he hadsuffered some back strain, even though Howry had told the staff hewas available.

"Bob did some work in the weight room, with squats particularly,that helped him come back," Manuel said.

The Sox received a break during their four-run second inning whenright fielder Manny Ramirez misjudged the strong wind blowing in andbroke four or five steps back before having to come in on Singleton'stwo-run double.

The Sox needed every break they could get, having lost theirprevious two games to Cleveland 10-2 and 13-10.

They also got a break with Cleveland's lineup, which includedthree rookies. The top four players on the Indians' bench - KennyLofton, David Justice, Einar Diaz, Enrique Wilson - were injured.And Travis Fryman, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Wil Cordero are on thedisabled list.

"Never in my wildest imagination in spring training did I thinkwe'd have a lineup like this," Indians manager Mike Hargrove said.