BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Different Team but Same Hershiser : AL playoffs: Former Dodger strikes out seven and gives Indians commanding lead with a 4-0 victory over Red Sox.

It all seemed so familiar, so overwhelmingly successful. Only the uniform, the surroundings and the year were different.

Orel Hershiser stood on the mound in front of another record crowd at Jacobs Field, continuing the playoff mastery he started in 1988 as a Dodger.

He’s a member of the Cleveland Indians now, but certainly no more hittable than in ’88 as the Boston Red Sox found out in a 4-0 loss before 44,264 Wednesday night.

Hershiser’s fifth postseason victory moved the Indians within a victory of advancing to the American League championship series. Cleveland leads the best-of-five division series against Boston, 2-0. Game 3 is Friday at Boston’s Fenway Park.

The loss extended Boston’s playoff losing streak to 12 games, dating to Bill Buckner’s error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

Omar Vizquel’s two-run double in the fifth inning and Eddie Murray’s two-run homer in the eighth provided Hershiser with all the offense he needed.

When his back stiffened with one out in the eighth, Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove turned the game over to the bullpen. Julian Tavarez and Paul Assenmacher got the Indians out of the inning, then Jose Mesa pitched a flawless ninth.

Hershiser gave up only three hits and struck out club playoff-record seven to lower his career postseason earned-run average to 1.52 (11 earned runs in 65 1/3 innings over nine games).

“In ’88 I was a little finer and more precise with my pitches,” said Hershiser, who had two complete-game victories in the Dodgers’ five-game victory over the A’s seven years ago. “I think I was effectively wild tonight, but I could be sitting here just as easily talking about a loss.”

Hershiser struggled to maintain control in the second and fifth innings, but otherwise he was superb.

“I’ve been around a lot of good and talented baseball players in my career as a manager, coach and player, but I don’t think I’ve ever run across somebody who is able to focus on what they’re doing and execute the plan as well as Orel Hershiser does,” Hargrove said.

Said Boston Manager Kevin Kennedy: “Orel was perfect.”

Added Vizquel: “He kept the ball down every time, giving us a chance to get a lot of ground balls. A guy like that, he keeps the momentum going through the game and gives the guys more life and concentration.”

Hershiser said it was tougher than it looked.

“It’s been a long time since I was in the playoffs,” he said. “You can throw all that experience stuff we talked about the other day out the window. I was as nervous as all get out at times.”

Despite that, Hershiser continued the Indians’ domination of Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco, the Red Sox’s power hitters, for the second game in a row.

Vaughn and Canseco have looked lost, each going hitless in 10 at-bats in the series. Vaughn has hit only two balls out of the infield and struck out five times. Canseco has three strikeouts and lofted only three lazy flyballs out of the infield.

Vaughn, an MVP candidate after hitting 39 home runs with an AL co-leading 126 runs batted in during the regular season, particularly seems to be pressing in his first playoff series.

“It could be,” Kennedy said. “I know he wants to [win] for his team, for Boston, for the fans, for himself.”

Beside snapping Vaughn and Canseco out of their collective malaise, the Red Sox also must find a way to subdue Cleveland’s offense.

Friday, knuckleballer Tim Wakefield will try to do something Roger Clemens, in Game 1, and Erik Hanson, in Game 2, couldn’t--halt the Indians.

Hanson gave up only four hits in throwing a complete game but failed to quiet the Indians entirely.

“It was really important to go to Boston up, 2-0,” Vizquel said. “If we had tied, 1-1, it would have been very hard to go to Boston and win two of three games. They know how to play the green wall and they know how to play on their home field.”

Perhaps, but the Red Sox need to win three in a row.