KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It was a night of firsts for the Kansas City Royals.
Mike Wood got his first victory as a starter and as a Royal. John Buck got his first major league hit. Shawn Camp earned his first save in the big leagues.
And the Royals got their first win in almost a week, beating Baltimore 4-3 Tuesday night to snap a five-game losing skid.
"I don't think I've calmed down yet," said Camp, usually a middle reliever. "That's the first time I've ever gone in to save a game. It's a fun feeling."
Camp pitched a perfect ninth for save No. 1.
Desi Relaford hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the sixth, forcing Sidney Ponson (3-11) to share a dubious honor with hall-of-famer Robin Roberts. He's the first Baltimore pitcher to lose six games in a single month since Roberts in May 1965.
Ponson, who lost his eighth in a row as the Orioles lost for the 12th time in 16 games, is also the only big league pitcher this year with 11 losses. He gave up four runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings
"It is hard. I'm 3-11," he said. "The bottom line -- I didn't like the way I threw the ball today."
Wood (1-0) earned his first victory since coming over in the three-team trade last Thursday that sent Royals star Carlos Beltran to Houston.
Since Beltran's first-inning homer last Thursday against Detroit, the Royals had not held a lead in 49 straight innings until Tony Graffanino's bloop single made it 2-1 in the fifth.
"It's time to move on," first baseman Ken Harvey said. "We're grown men. We have to play without our star. Let's move on."
Wood, who had two wins last year with Oakland, went six innings and gave up three runs on seven hits, with three strikeouts and no walks.
"It feels great to get my first win as a starter," he said. "It was meant to be tonight."
The Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the third on doubles by Jerry Hairston and David Newhan, who was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles.
The Royals tied it 1-1 in the fourth on Matt Stairs' run-scoring grounder.
After Graffanino's single in the fifth, Mike Sweeney's RBI single made it 3-1.
In the sixth, Miguel Tejada tripled and scored on Rafael Palmeiro's RBI grounder and Javy Lopez hit Wood's next pitch for his 10th homer, tying it at 3.
"I think the Royals got good players for Beltran," Buck said. "He is one of the best outfielders, but the players the Royals got are major league players. I think you'll see more of that."
Ponson felt it was no consolation that several of the Royals' key hits were bloopers.
"You can't do anything about those," he said. "I made a good pitch and they got enough good wood on them to get them over first base."
Notes
Royals 3B Joe Randa underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and will be out for at least a month. ... Closer Jeremy Affeldt was elected Royals' player representative. ... The Orioles placed OF Jay Gibbons on the 15-day DL with a left hip flexor strain and will purchase the contract of OF Chad Mottola from Triple-A Ottawa. ... The Orioles gave up three walks to raise their league-leading total to 330.
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