It’s a Boo-tiful Night for Gaston : Baseball: He manages AL to 9-3 victory over NL but keeps Oriole favorite Mussina in bullpen.

As the American League closed in on a 9-3 victory over the National in Tuesday night’s 64th All-Star game, it wasn’t enough for a crowd of 48,147, the largest yet at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

A chant of “we want Mike” provided a ninth-inning backdrop, and Mike Piazza knew it wasn’t for him.

The Baltimore partisans, already angry at Cito Gaston, the AL manager, for selecting four of his Toronto Blue Jays after three others were voted in, tried in vain to urge him to bring in Oriole right-hander Mike Mussina, who was throwing in the bullpen.

Instead, Gaston stayed with his own closer, Duane Ward, who shrugged off the chant to pitch a perfect ninth inning, striking out Piazza to complete the AL’s sixth consecutive victory, closing the National’s advantage to 37-26-1.

Piazza, the Dodger rookie catcher, smiled and said it was “a little weird and distracting,” trying to keep his concentration amid the chant for Mussina, but he added:

“I have to take a negative and try to make it a positive. Down the line, in those tough National League parks with a lot of fan support, like Atlanta and San Francisco, maybe it will help me as a hitter.”

It was the only at-bat for Piazza, who entered the game defensively in the seventh inning.

“I’m not at all disappointed,” he said. “It was an honor just to be here. I got to catch two great closers in Bryan Harvey and Rod Beck, and I faced a great reliever in Ward.

“I was up there hacking. I didn’t want to be cheated. He threw me two good sliders and then painted the outside corner with a fastball. I’ll take it to the bank. Maybe we’ll meet again in a World Series. I’ve got to look at it all from an experience standpoint.”

The experience wasn’t the most pleasant for Gaston, despite the victory and productive performances by Ward and two of his Toronto hitters.

An 11-hit AL attack included a solo homer by Roberto Alomar and run-scoring double by Devon White of the Blue Jays. It also included a home run and double by Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett, the most valuable player.

Seven AL pitchers restricted the NL to seven hits, including two doubles by Barry Bonds, tying an All-Star record; and a two-run, first-inning homer by Gary Sheffield off Angel left-hander Mark Langston on a breaking ball that didn’t.

“I’d like that one pitch back, but I had a great experience,” Langston said of his two-inning stint in his fourth All-Star appearance.

“I mean, getting to start an All-Star game was something every little kid dreams about, but I’d still trade all of my All-Star experiences for a World Series.”

Gaston has had both. He would definitely trade this one. He was booed during the introductions and heard the chant for Mussina turn to a nasty “Cito . . . “ at the final out, after which he elected not to leave the dugout to congratulate the AL players walking off the field.

“I guess I better leave town,” he said later, adding that he understood the loyalty of the Oriole partisans and recognized that some of the hostility stemmed from the AL East rivalry between the Blue Jays and Orioles.

“What I don’t think the fans realized was that Mussina had more rest than any of my other pitchers, and I wanted to save him if the game went into extra innings.

“I met with the pitchers and told them my plan before the game.”

But why was Mussina throwing in the ninth inning? Just getting in his normal work between starts, the pitcher said, insisting he wasn’t disappointed by the manager’s failure to respond to the loyalists’ pleas.

“I can understand how they felt,” he said of the crowd, “but I felt badly for Duane. He earned his position. Let him do his job.

“I mean I’m sure the crowd was more disappointed than I am. I’m not even sure I deserved to be on the team. I was just happy to be on the bench, but I guess I made it a show anyway.”

So did Randy Johnson, the Seattle Mariner left-hander who pitched two shutout innings, and NL first baseman John Kruk.

Amid the humidity of a 95-degree night, Johnson’s first pitch to Kruk in the third inning sailed to the backstop screen, after which Kruk decided he wanted no part of the AL strikeout leader.

Kruk promptly struck out on three consecutive pitches, bailing out on all three worse than a frightened Little Leaguer as both dugouts erupted in laughter and Johnson winked at Kruk walking off the mound.

“My goal when I stepped in was to make contact, obviously, but my goal after that first pitch was to stay alive,” Kruk said. “I accomplished my goal.

“I mean, I didn’t care what he threw. I didn’t care if he struck me out. I wasn’t going to let him hit me. I was running.

“Even if I’d gotten a hit, they’d have called me out for being out of the batter’s box.”

The AL won it with three runs in the fifth inning against John Burkett, who pitched 5 2/3 innings as the San Francisco Giant starter Sunday, and three more runs against the Atlanta Braves’ duo of Steve Avery and John Smoltz in the sixth.

The Braves had a worse night than Gaston and were also mocked by a crowd that did the tomahawk chop during that sixth inning in which all of the AL runs were unearned, stemming from a two-out error by Atlanta shortstop Jeff Blauser and two run-scoring wild pitches after Smoltz replaced Avery.

In addition, Atlanta right fielder David Justice had contributed to the three-run AL fifth by allowing Albert Belle to take an extra base by booting Belle’s single. Justice then allowed Ken Griffey Jr. an extra base with a futile and wide throw to the plate as Belle scored on the Griffey single.