This Chili Is Almost Too Much for Hungry Orioles to Swallow

Baltimore Oriole Manager Davey Johnson spent Thursday in the hospital because of an irregular heartbeat, and Angel designated hitter Chili Davis did his best to send him back to the emergency room Saturday night.

With two outs, the bases loaded, the Orioles clinging to a one-run lead and a Camden Yards crowd of 46,487 on its feet, Davis fouled off two full-count pitches before grounding out to shortstop Cal Ripken Jr.

The Orioles held on for a thriller of a 5-4 victory, and Johnson--along with Baltimore’s fans--was finally able to exhale.

“He just came from the hospital, and I don’t want him to have a heart attack,” Davis said of Johnson, “but it’s nice to get him sweating.”

The loss ended a three-game win streak for the Angels, who also missed a chance to move to within seven games in the wild-card race. The Orioles moved ahead of the Chicago White Sox atop the wild-card standings.

“Games like that are real good for the heart,” Johnson smirked, “like running a 440 full speed.”

Whenever the Orioles looked over their shoulders, the Angels seemed to be gaining on them. Baltimore took a 1-0 lead in the first--the first Angel deficit in three games--but the Angels scored twice in the second on Gary DiSarcina’s RBI single and Jorge Fabregas’ sacrifice fly to take a 2-1 lead.

The Orioles went up, 3-2, in the fifth, but RBI singles by DiSarcina and Fabregas in the sixth gave the Angels a 4-3 lead--and two comebacks against one of baseball’s best pitchers, Mike Mussina.

But when reliever Kyle Abbott replaced starter Pep Harris in the sixth, the left-hander retired only two of the six batters he faced--one on a sacrifice bunt--and the Orioles scored twice to move ahead, 5-4.

Don Slaught, who hadn’t batted in two weeks, led off the ninth with a pinch-hit single off closer Randy Myers, and Rex Hudler followed with a pinch-hit single.

Randy Velarde bunted the runners up, and the Angels had runners on second and third with the heart of their lineup--Jim Edmonds, Tim Salmon and Davis--coming up.

“It was the situation we wanted,” said Joe Maddon, the interim manager who became an absentee interim manager when he was ejected in the second inning. “It just didn’t work out.”

Myers fell behind Edmonds, 2-0, but Edmonds swung through three fastballs for his fourth strikeout of the game. “I don’t know what the heck was going on,” Edmonds said. “This is not a good place to strike out. It’s a launching pad.”

Myers then jumped ahead of Salmon, 0-2, but threw four consecutive balls for a walk to load the bases. That brought up Davis, who worked the count full before swinging at a pitch that might have been a little below the strike zone and grounding hard to short.

“I just saw it on ‘SportsCenter’ and it might have been ball four after looking at it,” Davis said. “But ‘SportsCenter’ isn’t there when you’re at the plate. It can’t help you.”

Despite making the final out, Davis was pumped afterward.

“I’m so wired I need to play another game,” he said. “This one ended too soon. I wanted to win that game, not for me personally, but for us. It would have been a great win.

“The three towns we’ve been to [Boston, New York, Baltimore], the teams have all been in the race, and it’s been exciting. It’s good to play an exciting game in an exciting environment when it means something to someone. It’s not like we’re playing Kansas City, when the game means nothing and you’re just trying to pad your statistics.”