The latest victory was a product of solid starting pitching and timely hitting, two staples in the diet of a successful team. On this occasion, Ted Lilly (3-1) provided the former with six innings of three-hit baseball. Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez supplied the power, as each hit homers in the winning effort.

"I base my decisions on who will give us the best chance to win, and (Lilly) is one of those guys who will give you the chance to win," Joe Torre said. "That was his best command of the year by far. Lilly gave us a great outing. He had the best curve and real good form. This is the best I have seen him."

When Lilly was asked if it was his best game of the year, he agreed with his manager's assessment.

"I felt like it was. I made my pitches tonight, bottom line," said Lilly, who left in the seventh inning with a 3-1 lead. "I'm real happy with the way I pitched. I was just relaxed and pitched my game. It's all about keeping the same tempo out there. My only goal is to just go out there and give us a chance to win."

He did that and then some, in a game that looked like it might never take place. In the first inning, there was a 41-minute rain delay. That break happened right after the first batter, before the game could settle into any rhythm. It probably didn't affect Lilly, but Baltimore's Josh Towers couldn't say the same.

"After the delay, (he) had a little trouble getting his pitches down," Mike Hargrove said of his starter. "After that, he was fine. He threw the ball well."

The first batter after the delay, Derek Jeter, lined a double off the Oriole rookie. Williams made it even worse for Towers with an arcing homer to right-center, giving the Yankees an early 2-0 lead.

"It was a fastball up in the zone," Williams said. "I took a couple of pitches, and I just reacted to that pitch."

He certainly did, and that was all the offense Lilly would need. The southpaw retired the first eight batters he faced, and nine of the first 10.

"Lilly put zeroes on the board for us," Torre said. "It gave us a chance to win."

He did yield a run in the fourth, but he worked out of a jam that could've been much worse. Baltimore rookie Brian Roberts, who made two errors on the day, led off with a double. He went to third on a wild pitch by Lilly.

After that miscue, the left-hander calmly went to work. He struck out David Segui and got two fly ball outs, the first of which scored the run.

In the fifth, Lilly allowed a base-runner but got an inning-ending double play. In the sixth, he went through the Orioles, three-up and three-down.

"We could never get anything going off Lilly," Hargrove said. "He threw a lot of first-pitch strikes, especially with his curveball, and kept us off-balance. We just could never generate anything off him."

Towers (6-3) could pretty much say the same, although he did allow a bizarre run in the top of the seventh. Shane Spencer reached on an infield single, and he moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Alfonso Soriano reached base with another infield single, sending Spencer to third. The next batter, Chuck Knoblauch, hit a sinking liner to right field.

Jeff Conine appeared to make a sliding catch, but he rolled over and dropped the ball. Spencer, who had tagged up, scored easily on the play. Soriano, though, was thrown out at second on a 9-4-6 fielder's choice.

Lilly walked Segui to start the bottom of that inning, so Torre went to Jay Witasick. Witasick got two straight outs, before making things interesting. He hit a batter with a pitch, then allowed an infield single, loading the bases. With two outs and the go-ahead run on first, the righty reliever struck out Mike Kinkade.

Tino Martinez tacked on an insurance run in the eighth inning, stroking a solo homer over the wall in right-center. It was his 16th of the season, and his seventh in the last 10 games.

"We are swinging the bats well, getting good starting pitching and solid bullpen work," Martinez said. "With me, I am getting good looks. You keep messing around until you find something that works. I am swinging the bat as best at I can right now."

The Yanks added two more runs in the final frame, and they turned out to be key in the winning effort. With one out, Soriano reached on a throwing error by Roberts, Baltimore's young shortstop. Knoblauch doubled to deep right, sending Soriano to third. Jeter knocked them both in with a single, making the score 6-1.

The O's got two runs in the ninth off Mark Wohlers, but Mariano Rivera came in to shut things down for his 28th save. The Yankees are 7-0 in Camden Yards this season, and 11-2 overall against the Orioles.

"I wish I could explain it. We play well here," Williams said. "We get a lot of fans coming down to support us, but the bottom line is that we just play hard down here and win the games. I wouldn't say it's just because it's the Orioles because we play everywhere just as hard."