The answer to the Orioles' problems is so obvious. It's been staring us in the face all along.

They can only win if they have an interim manager. Remember that Baltimore was playing great as long as Dave Trembley was the interim replacing Sam Perlozzo. The very day the front office gave the well-liked Trembley a contract to manage through 2008 -- which many felt he richly deserved -- they started their current month-long skid with a 30-3 loss to the Texas Rangers.  Now that Trembley is cooling his heels serving a three-game suspension for his animated protest a couple of nights ago and Tom Trebelhorn is managing in his stead, the Orioles beat the American League West-leading Angels -- and star pitcher John Lackey, no less -- in a 3-0 shutout.

The Orioles also happened to do it with a lineup that looked like it was being sent to Sarasota to play the B game of a spring training split-squad doubleheader. Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, Ramon Hernandez and Melvin Mora (sore back) sat out. The starter was Jon Leicester, who had pitched just under 16 innings this season before last night. He went 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

OK, so here's the plan. The Orioles name a new manager every two weeks -- now don't remind me of that Cubs thing 45 years ago when they rotated managers from the minors and finished 70 games under .500 over two seasons. That was way too calculated.

I'm talking radical here. Like picking names out of hat, grabbing guys -- and gals -- out of the stands, just running the team as if some dopey loon owned the  club. Oh, wait a minute, we already have that last thing, don't we.