BASEBALL PLAYOFFS DAILY REPORT : AMERICAN LEAGUE

Former Dodgers Still Alive in Playoffs

They were both 3-0 in the postseason of 1988 as the Dodgers defeated the New York Mets in the National League championship series and the Oakland A’s in the World Series.

Tonight, however, Tim Belcher and Orel Hershiser will be on opposite sides, starting pitchers for the Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Indians in Game 2 of the American League’s championship series.

Belcher reflected on ’88 and said: “There was no hotter pitcher on the planet [than Hershiser]. He single handily carried the pitching staff through September and October. He was the best pitcher I’ve ever seen, and he may have been the best anyone has ever seen during that stretch.”

Including his victory in Game 2 of the division series, Hershiser is now 5-0 in the postseason and 17-6 for the Indians in 1995, rekindling memories of his Cy Young Award form of 1988 and those 59 consecutive scoreless innings.

“My stuff is very, very close and my health is very, very close,” he said. “Am I approaching that form? Yes. Do I expect [to be that dominant again]? No, because there was such a miracle finish to that year. My role has also changed. I’m one of a cast of players now. I’m not the person expected to carry the team, so to speak.”

Belcher had a 4-0 career record in the postseason before losing Game 2 of the division series in relief. He was 10-12 with the Mariners after going 7-15 with the Detroit Tigers last year and being one of the last players to be signed out of the Homestead, Fla., free agent camp in the spring.

“Considering the year I had in Detroit and the experience this spring, it would have taken a lofty imagination to think I’d be starting a game in the LCS,” he said.

“However, when I got here and saw the talent, I felt that anything was possible, and it has been. The emotional level is very close to what I felt with the Dodgers in ’88 except that we went all the way that year. We haven’t done that here--yet.”