BOSTON (AP) – It was a strange night for the Baltimore Orioles. They finally got some offense and reliever Willis Roberts earned his first major league win.

Baltimore, with a major league low .170 batting average coming in, took a four-run lead against Frank Castillo in the first inning. And Roberts pitched four shutout innings as the Orioles held on for a 5-4 win Wednesday night over the Boston Red Sox.

"Roberts did a very good job," Orioles manager Mike Hargrove said. "We scouted him in winter ball, but he was relatively unknown coming into camp."

Roberts (1-0) spent the last eight seasons in the minors -- pitching only 1 1/3 innings in one game for Detroit in 1999 -- but made the Orioles as a non-roster player.

On Wednesday, he struck out seven and allowed two walks and two hits. He hasn't allowed a run this season in 6 2/3 innings.

"Starting or coming on in relief doesn't matter," said Roberts, who started a little more than half his minor league games. "I know I must throw first pitch strikes."

The Orioles, leading 5-3, ran into trouble when Ryan Kohlmeier replaced Roberts in the ninth and gave up a run-scoring double to Trot Nixon. But Buddy Groom got his first save by retiring Troy O'Leary on a bases-loaded groundout.

"We had the right people up, it just didn't work out," Red Sox manager Jimy Williams said. "He (O'Leary) has come through so many times for us."

O'Leary started the game at 1-for-21 and went 3-for-5.

Equally surprising was the offense of the Orioles, who have scored in only 11 of 76 innings this season. The five runs were a season-high and the 10 hits matched their high.

"We're not a home-run hitting team, but tonight we swung the bats as well as we are capable," Hargrove said.

Baltimore has just one homer in eight games but got three doubles in the four-run first.

Delino DeShields started the rally by drawing a walk for the seventh time in eight games. He took second on Mike Bordick's groundout and scored on Chris Richard's double.

Jeff Conine singled in the next run and David Segui and Ripken made it 4-0 with run-scoring doubles. It was Ripken's 4,999th total base. Only 14 players have 5,000.

"I fell behind in the count and didn't make pitches when I needed to," Castillo said. "I put the team in a hole right off the bat."

Boston's major league best ERA jumped from 1.55 to 1.86. And Castillo ended a string of remarkable starts by Red Sox pitchers, who allowed eight runs in their other seven games.

The Red Sox fought back with two runs in the second and a run in the fourth, cutting the lead against Jason Johnson to 4-3. Then Roberts took over in the fifth.

"He came into a tough situation and did a great job," Baltimore catcher Brook Fordyce said. "From the first day of camp he's been tremendous."

Baltimore added a run in the ninth on a single by Brady Anderson, who took third on right fielder Trot Nixon's error, and scored on Ripken's sacrifice fly.

Boston started coming back in the second with two runs as Manny Ramirez led off with a walk, took third on O'Leary's double and scored on Jason Varitek's groundout. O'Leary scored on Shea Hillenbrand's single.

Hillenbrand set a Red Sox record by a rookie for hitting in the first eight games of a season. He had been tied with Ted Williams, who did it in 1939, and Ben Steiner in 1945. Williams started the 1939 season with hits in his first nine games, but missed one game during that stretch.

Boston made it 4-3 in the fifth on singles by Ramirez, O'Leary and Varitek and a sacrifice fly by Brian Daubach.

The Orioles were held hitless by Pete Schourek for 2 2/3 innings and Rich Garces for two before scoring off Rod Beck in the ninth.

Game notes
The Red Sox had won four straight. ... Castillo and Johnson faced each other in their first outings of the season. Neither got the decision in the Orioles' 2-1 win in Baltimore last Thursday. ... Hargrove won his 799th game as a major league manager.

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