BALTIMORE -- On a day in which he hit two home runs, Rafael Palmeiro watched Miguel Tejada break his club record for RBI in a season.
And he didn't mind one bit.
"That's awesome, to have it on the same team as me and see him do it," Palmeiro said Wednesday after the Baltimore Orioles beat Toronto Blue Jays 7-6 in the first game of a doubleheader.
Tejada's run-scoring single in the fifth inning gave him 143 RBI, snapping the mark set by Palmeiro in 1996.
"I didn't realize how many RBIs that was until I saw him do it," Palmeiro said. "When I did it, it didn't seem like that many. When he did it, it seemed like a whole ton of RBIs, man. It's amazing."
Playing in his first season in Baltimore after signing as a free agent in December, Tejada leads the AL in RBI and has 12 in his last six games.
"He's the heartbeat of this club. He gets us going, he's one of the leaders, he's vocal, everything," Palmeiro said.
Palmeiro hit a two-run drive in the fourth inning and a solo shot in the sixth. His 34th career multihomer game, the second this season, gave him 551 home runs -- nine short of Reggie Jackson for ninth place on the career list.
David Newhan singled in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth after the Orioles blew a 6-3 lead. The victory enabled Baltimore (75-81) to keep alive its slim hope of avoiding a losing season for the first time since 1997.
Vernon Wells homered twice and drove in three runs, and Carlos Delgado and Adams also connected for the last-place Blue Jays. Toronto had won six straight in Baltimore.
Tim Raines Jr. led off the ninth with a single off Justin Speier (3-8) and took third when Toronto shortstop Russ Adams threw wildly to second on a slow grounder by Melvin Mora. Tejada then received an intentional walk before Palmeiro struck out.
Newhan, who entered earlier as a pinch-runner, followed with a soft liner to left.
"The bullpen hung tough and gave us a chance," Toronto interim manager John Gibbons said. "But you're playing with fire with the bases loaded and no outs. We almost got out of it; we hung tough. We just had too many walks."
Four Toronto pitchers yielded eight walks, including five by starter Ted Lilly, who gave up five runs on three hits in 4 2/3 innings. The left-hander was seeking his fourth win in a row and career-high 13th of the season, but instead had his shortest outing since June 24.
"It was very frustrating," Lilly said. "I wanted to take a timeout and just practice for a little bit because I just lost it that bad. That was about as tough as it was for me finding the strike zone."
B.J. Ryan (4-6) worked a perfect ninth for the Orioles, who have won five of six.
The Blue Jays trailed 6-3 before Delgado hit a two-run drive in the seventh off Jorge Julio, pitching for the first time since serving a four-game suspension for throwing at the head of Minnesota's Augie Ojeda on Sept. 10.
Adams tied the game in the eighth with a pinch-homer off Jason Grimsley.
Toronto got an unearned run in the first and went up 2-0 in the third when Wells homered off Bruce Chen. Palmeiro's first home run evened the score in the fourth, but Wells' 22nd of the season put Toronto ahead 3-2 in the fifth.
Baltimore took a 5-3 lead in the bottom half when Raines doubled in two runs and scored on Tejada's single. Palmeiro's 23rd homer made it 6-3.
Notes
The game was a makeup of Tuesday night's rainout. ... Palmeiro's first homer was the 37th in the 12-year history of Camden Yards to land on Eutaw Street beyond the right-field scoreboard. Palmeiro has hit five of them. ... Wells has seven career multihomer games, including four against Baltimore.
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