Angels Are Winners in ‘Who’s on Third?’ : Baseball: Everyone looks for answers after bizarre double play ends Orioles’ threat in eighth inning.

The Angels saw it with their own eyes. They know they were the ones ultimately responsible for the play. Yet, they appeared dazed in the clubhouse Saturday after their 7-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, thoroughly confused how it happened.

They trailed after reporters doing interviews, wanting someone to explain what transpired in the wackiest double play in which they had ever been involved.

There were a dozen conflicting reports from each clubhouse at Camden Yards, trying to explain what happened, and no two players seemed to come up with the same story.

Said Angel third baseman Rene Gonzales: “Harry’s Radiator was the last team I was on where I saw something stupid like that happen.

“I mean, even though it turned out great for us, I really don’t think I ever want to see something like that again.”

It will go down simply as an eighth-inning double play in the box score, but it long will be remembered as the Orioles’ version of Abbott and Costello. Instead of, “Who’s at First,” the script will read, “Why is everybody standing on third?”

“It’s weird,” said Angel first baseman J.T Snow, who went two for five with a triple, home run and two runs batted in. “I was right there in the middle of it, but I still haven’t been able to figure it out.”

All Angel reliever Joe Grahe knows is that he yielded two doubles, an intentional walk, what looked to be a sacrifice fly and what appeared to be a sacrifice bunt in the eighth inning . . . and the Orioles never scored.

“My God, how can you explain something like that?” said Grahe (1-1), who pitched three scoreless, albeit zany innings in relief of Chuck Finley for the victory.

Well, something like this:

Harold Reynolds opened the eighth with a double. Jeff Tackett laid down a bunt in front of the plate and catcher John Orton hurriedly threw to third. Reynolds appeared to slide in under Gonzales’ tag, but third base umpire Terry Kraft ruled Reynolds out.

Brady Anderson slapped a double into the left-field corner, advancing Tackett to third. Pinch-hitter Chito Martinez was intentionally walked, loading the bases for Mike Devereaux.

“I figured we’re going to need something weird to happen to get out of this inning,” Snow said. “Of course, I didn’t think it would be that weird.”

Devereaux stepped to the plate needing only a sacrifice fly to tie the game. Jammed on an inside pitch, he hit the ball to short left-center. Curtis dove for the ball, and . . . well, who knows? Curtis said he caught it. Tackett thought he caught it. Oriole third base coach Mike Ferraro thought Curtis trapped it. Most important, umpire Ted Hendry ruled he trapped it.

Tackett took off for home when the ball was hit--much to Ferraro’s chagrin--and came running back to third when he thought the ball was caught--much to Ferraro’s rage.

“I thought I caught the ball in the webbing,” said Curtis, who tied a club record with four steals, “but I’m not even sure of that. I just got up throwing, and then I stood around wondering what the heck was going on.

“I was out there counting up the outs, and I came up with four.”

Curtis hit the cutoff man, Snow, who was under the assumption that Curtis caught the ball. He figured Tackett had already scored, and was throwing to Gonzales at third to tag out Anderson.

Gonzales, who had only to touch third for the force of Anderson, instead threw the ball to Orton. Likewise, Orton needed only to touch home for the force on Tackett, but he ran toward third base where everyone was standing.

“I was screaming my lungs out trying to direct traffic,” Grahe said, “but nobody was listening. Then I saw three guys standing on one base, and I really started yelling.”

Said Angel Manager Buck Rodgers: “I wasn’t yelling anything because I didn’t know what was going on.”

Orton kept running, and before he knew it, tagged Tackett, Anderson, Martinez. Now that he thinks about it, he might have even tagged Gonzales.

“I was just trying to tag everybody in sight,” he said.

And there it was, for all 45,694 fans to see, an 8-3-5-2 double play.

“By us being confused,” Angel Vice President Whitey Herzog said, “we confused the hell out of them.”