Baltimore ? A year ago, Travis Driskill was in the midst of his ninth straight season in the minor leagues. Ten days ago, Chris Richard and Jeff Conine were languishing on the disabled list.

Playing together for the first time Thursday, the trio teamed to help the Baltimore Orioles complete a three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins.

Baltimore's Chris Richard, right, accepts congratulations from teammate Tony Batista after hitting a two-run home run. The Orioles defeated the Twins, 4-1, Thursday in Baltimore.

Richard and Conine drove in two runs each, and Driskill added another highlight to his amazing rookie season as Baltimore kept up domination of the Twins with a 4-1 victory.

Minnesota started the series with a 16-game lead in the AL Central, while the Orioles were coming off consecutive losses in Toronto. But Baltimore outscored Minnesota 19-7 to move within two games of .500 for the first time since July 21.

“Strange things happen sometimes,” Orioles manager Mike Hargrove said. “We should feel good about doing this against those guys.”

Richard, activated July 31 from a season-long stint on the disabled list, hit his third homer in nine games. Conine, in his second game following a seven-week stay on the DL, hit a two-run single in the fourth to put Baltimore up 4-1.

“Anytime you get those sorts of people back, it really adds a spark to the lineup,” Hargrove said. “And when you lose people like that, you end up taking round pegs and trying to fit them into round holes.”

Driskill (8-5) allowed one run and seven hits in 6 2â3 innings. The 31-year-old rookie struck out five and walked two for his first victory at Camden Yards in six starts.

“It’s big. Having all that success on the road and not having it at home seemed sort of strange,” he said.

Jorge Julio, the fourth Baltimore pitcher, worked the ninth for his 23rd save in 28 chances.

It was the fourth straight defeat for Minnesota, matching its longest skid of the season (April 8-11). Jacque Jones had three hits for the Twins, just 11-40 against the Orioles since July 1996.

“It’s just one of those teams we struggle against,” said Brad Radke (4-3), who allowed four runs and five hits in seven innings. “They’ve had some guys hurt, but they have a good young team. They kind of look like us a few years ago they’re growing together as a team.”

The Twins were outscored 19-7 in the series and went 7-for-31 with runners in scoring position, including 2-for-11 in the finale, when they stranded 13 runners.

“We left too many men on base. We’ve been doing that for a while now,” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We’re not scoring very many runs right now.”

White Sox 3, Angels 2

Chicago Jim Parque, pitching for the first time since undergoing shoulder surgery, won for the first time in nearly two years, leading Chicago past Anaheim. Parque, in his first outing since May 2, allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1â3 innings for his first win since Sept. 23, 2000, at Minnesota.

Rocky Biddle, Kelly Wunsch, Keith Foulke and Damaso Marte combined on 3 2â3 scoreless innings of relief with Marte getting five outs for his fifth save. Frank Thomas hit his 19th home run and Carlos Lee hit his 18th off Aaron Sele (8-8) for Chicago.

Devil Rays 4, Indians 2

Cleveland Paul Wilson won his third straight start and Tampa Bay scored all its runs with two outs as the Devil Rays defeated Cleveland. Wilson (5-7) won for the first time in nine road starts since April 10. He allowed one run on six hits, striking out four in eight innings.

He has yielded just four earned runs in his last 22 innings and has an ERA of 2.58 since the All-Star break. He had the fifth-best ERA in the majors after the break last year at 2.39.

Red Sox 4, Athletics 2

Boston Derek Lowe became the American League’s first 16-game winner, outdueling Barry Zito with seven strong innings as Boston beat Oakland. The matchup of two of the AL’s three pitchers with 15 wins met expectations as Lowe (16-5) allowed five hits and Zito (15-5) yielded seven in eight innings. Boston’s Pedro Martinez is 15-2. Curt Schilling of Arizona leads the majors with 18 wins.

The A’s did something that none of Lowe’s three previous opponents managed to do. They scored against the majors’ ERA leader, who lowered his mark from 2.13 to 2.09.

Mariners 3, Blue Jays 1

Toronto Jamie Moyer took a shutout into the eighth inning and Jeff Cirillo had three hits as Seattle beat Toronto. Edgar Martinez had a two-run single in the third and Cirillo hit a run-scoring double in the sixth for the Mariners, who have won 15 of their last 18 games at SkyDome. Seattle hasn’t lost a series in Toronto since 1999.

Moyer (12-4) allowed one run and six hits in 7 2â3 innings. The 39 year-old left-hander, who hasn’t lost to Toronto since 1999, struck out four and walked two to improve 7-1 on the road this season.

Tigers 2, Rangers 1

Detroit Jose Lima allowed nine hits in 5 1/3 innings and Detroit scored twice in the fourth inning to defeat Texas. Lima (3-5) allowed one run and walked none, throwing 53 of 71 pitches for strikes. Three relievers finished for the Tigers with Juan Acevedo getting three outs for his 20th save in 24 opportunities. Texas loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth, but Acevedo retired Alex Rodriguez on a groundout to end the game.

Rangers starter Ismael Valdes (5-9) allowed both Detroit runs and only four hits in 7 1/3 innings. He struck out eight and walked three.