Surprising Orioles complete sweep of Mariners

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The surprising Baltimore Orioles continued their best start in 10 years by completing a four-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners with a 5-4 home victory on Monday.

Aubrey Huff's eighth-inning home run broke a tie and helped the Orioles, winners of five straight games, to improve their American League-leading record to 5-1 in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the club.

"Well, you've got to do an awful lot of things right to win four games in a row against a good team like Seattle," Orioles manager Dave Trembley told reporters.

"We got great pitching out of the bullpen, timely hitting and played good defense. We did an awful lot of things right ... but you've got to like the way we compete."

The Orioles dealt ace pitcher Erik Bedard to the Mariners in the off-season but Seattle is the team struggling at the moment with a 2-5 record, last in the AL West. Bedard was scratched again on Sunday with a hip ailment and has only pitched one game this season.

Dennis Sarfate (2-0) got four outs in relief to pick up the win and George Sherrill pitched a scoreless ninth for his fourth save.

"Never under-estimate what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it," Trembley said. "It's great for our team, and I think success builds confidence, especially at this level."

Brian Roberts had three hits and drove in a pair of runs and Melvin Mora also homered for the Orioles.

Baltimore's fast start has not impressed the city's fans, who have grown weary of the Orioles losing ways the past few seasons. A crowd of just 10,774 was on hand at Camden Yards, the second smallest in the stadium's 17-year history.

Reliever Eric O'Flaherty (0-1) allowed the homer to Huff and took the loss. Ichiro Suzuki hit a leadoff homer and had a seventh inning single, his 1,600th career hit.

(Writing by Roger Lajoie in San Antonio, Editing by Ed Osmond)