Orioles Celebrate With Six Homers : Baseball: Angel starter Brian Anderson gives up four in the second inning alone of 8-0 loss to Baltimore.

The Baltimore Orioles are using commemorative, orange-stitched baseballs to mark the two biggest nights of Cal Ripken’s career--Tuesday and tonight--the first time in major league history a special ball has been approved to honor an individual player.

But they might have to order another batch, because they almost ran out of them Tuesday night during an emotion-charged evening in which Ripken tied Lou Gehrig’s record of playing in 2,130 consecutive games.

Many of the balls containing the “Streak Week” logo wound up in the outfield bleachers, as the Orioles ripped six home runs--four in the span of eight pitches off Angel starter Brian Anderson in the second inning--in an 8-0 victory before a sellout crowd of 46,804 in Camden Yards.

“Maybe those special-edition balls were juiced,” said Ripken. “The game took on a World Series, All-Star atmosphere, especially with all you guys [media] here, and maybe that brought out the best in our team. I don’t think anyone in their wildest dreams could will that kind of support for me. If they could, they would every night.”

Ripken celebrated his record-tying game with three hits, including a bases-empty home run to lead off the sixth.

The towering drive landed in the left-center field bleachers, an estimated 385 feet away, and was caught by Mike Stirn, a 32-year-old home builder from Sykesville, Md.

Stirn, who left the game under police escort, said he received an offer as high as $2,500 for the ball, but it wasn’t for sale.

“I tried to buy one of them [Tuesday], but they were all sold out,” he said.

He certainly wasn’t going to throw it back, although that’s what Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann would like to have done with Anderson’s performance.

The Angel left-hander extended his weak streak to seven consecutive starts when he gave up solo home runs to Chris Hoiles, Jeff Manto, Mark Smith and Brady Anderson in the second before being pulled for Mike Harkey.

Anderson (6-8) has yielded 24 home runs in 93 2/3 innings, 11 of them in the last four starts. The other two homers came off Harkey (Brady Anderson) and Mark Holzemer (Ripken).

The second-inning debacle Tuesday tied an Angel club record for homers allowed in one inning, set on July 31, 1963, when Paul Foytack gave up four homers to the Cleveland Indians.

The Angels, who ended their nine-game losing streak Monday, saw their lead in the American League West shrink to 5 1/2 games over Seattle, and they have now lost 16 of their last 20 games.

“This is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,” said Anderson, who is 0-6 with a 10.86 earned-run average in his last seven games. “I threw pitches with no intention, and if you do that at this level you’re going to get your butt kicked.

“I’m not making aggressive pitches, and that’s the problem in a nutshell. I’m being tentative, my balls are flattening out, and I’m getting them up a bit. I might as well put it on a tee out there.”

Perhaps Anderson got caught up in Ripken-mania? “I wasn’t out there long enough to get caught up in it,” he said.

He may not get another chance to get out there. Lachemann has stuck with Anderson for weeks, but it’s apparent the 23-year-old has about as much chance of remaining in the Angel rotation as Baltimore Manager Phil Regan has of leaving Ripken’s name off the lineup card tonight.

“It’s going to be difficult to keep him in there,” Lachemann admitted. “He’s trying, but he’s really struggling.”

Baltimore pitcher Scott Erickson had no such problems with the Angels. The right-hander went the distance on a three-hitter and struck out nine for his second complete-game victory over the Angels in the last two weeks.

Erickson (10-10) six-hit the Angels in an 11-2 victory Aug. 25 in Anaheim. The former Minnesota Twin, who began the game with a 5.75 ERA, is 3-0 against the Angels this season and 9-1 against them in his career.

“He doesn’t believe we can beat him, and I don’t like it,” Angel designated hitter Chili Davis said. “Guys are beating us who aren’t supposed to be beating us.”