Power-Hitting Orioles Truly a Wild Card for the Indians

They have two living legends, a 19-game winner, a player with 50 home runs, seven others with 20 homers or more and a manager who represents a link to the franchise’s glorious past.

All that and the wild-card Baltimore Orioles are almost no one’s pick to knock off the Cleveland Indians when their best-of-five division series begins today at Camden Yards.

“Obviously, we’re the underdog in this series,” Oriole Manager Davey Johnson said Monday. “We had some great ballgames against Cleveland this year--mostly offensive showings. I expect it to be more offensive, but in a playoff series, you can never tell.”

In most ways, the Orioles are the epitome of 1990s baseball. They hit a ton, play the field well enough, but can’t pitch a lick at times.

David Wells, today’s starter against Cleveland’s Charles Nagy, was so ineffective in his final three regular-season starts that Johnson skipped Wells’ last scheduled start, so the left-hander will be going on six days’ rest.

“The last three starts were hideous, no doubt about it,” said Wells, 0-1 with 21 earned runs, 21 hits and eight homers given up in those three starts.

Worse, Wells (11-14) suffered a stiff neck after being doused with ice water, beer and champagne as the Orioles celebrated their playoff berth Saturday. He couldn’t throw Sunday, but said he was “about 90% better” after playing catch Monday.

The Indians, the American League Central Division champions for the second consecutive year, led the majors with a .293 team batting average. And although they can’t match the Orioles’ power, they can come close.

Plus, with Nagy (17-5), Orel Hershiser and Jack McDowell, they have the formidable starting rotation the Orioles lack.

Cleveland’s probable lineup for Game 1 features seven batters with averages of .300 or better, led by designated hitter Kevin Seitzer, who hit .326 during the regular season.

Left fielder Albert Belle led the league with 148 runs batted in and had 48 homers.

“They have a great offensive club,” said Johnson, a second baseman on the Orioles’ World Series teams of 1966, ‘69, ’70 and ’71.

Baltimore doesn’t hit for average as does Cleveland, but the Orioles eclipsed the major league record by hitting 257 home runs this season. The 1961 Yankees of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle held the old record with 240. Maris hit his record 61 homers that season, Mantle 54.

Center fielder Brady Anderson became the 14th player in history to hit 50 homers when he smacked his major league-record 12th leadoff homer Sunday.

Anderson’s home run hitting has overshadowed the performances of future Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray and 19-game winner Mike Mussina, who will pitch Game 3 Friday at Cleveland.

That’s not such a bad thing, as far as Ripken is concerned.

“Last year was an unbelievable experience, period,” Ripken said of passing Lou Gehrig’s streak of consecutive games played. “It seemed like a celebration of baseball. It was a good opportunity to celebrate that feeling. This year, the focus is on the team, which is where it should be.”