Chili Is Almost Too Much for the 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.

The Orioles held on for a thriller of a 5-4 victory, and Johnson--along with the Baltimore 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 was nice to get him sweating.”

The loss stopped a three-game winning 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. 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, in his first at-bat 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 advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt, and the Angels had 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 straight fastballs for his fourth strikeout of the game and seventh in two days.

Myers then jumped ahead of Salmon, 0-2, but threw four consecutive balls for a walk. Then came Davis, who worked the count full before swinging at a low pitch and grounding hard to short.

“I just saw it on SportsCenter and it might have been ball four,” 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.

“I’m so wired I need to play another game,” he said. “This one ended too soon. I really wanted to win, 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.”

Maddon, ejected for arguing third-base umpire Mike Reilly’s ruling that Roberto Alomar checked his swing on a potential strike-three pitch, had to watch from a television in the Angels clubhouse. But it wasn’t as if the Angels had an acting interim to the interim manager.

“I was back and forth all night long, from the tunnel to the television,” Maddon said. “I was calling most of the stuff and was sending messengers [with instructions]. The clubhouse guy got really tired.”

Maddon’s biggest decision was to bring in Abbott, an untested reliever, to start the sixth with a one-run lead. Mike James, who hadn’t pitched in four days because of a stiff neck, was available but didn’t warm up until the eighth.

“With all the left-handers in their order, we wanted to go to a left-hander, and that’s Kyle’s slot there,” Maddon said. “You have to have all the components of the bullpen working to make things work, but he didn’t do the job.”