Orioles Won’t Trade Victory, Either

They were goners. Bobby Bonilla knew it. So did David Wells.

Bonilla was so sure he was going to be traded by the Baltimore Orioles that he sent his cars home to Greenwich, Conn. It would simplify moving, he figured.

But Oriole owner Peter Angelos nixed any deals involving Bonilla and Wells. And now the Orioles lead the Cleveland Indians after a 10-4 victory in Game 1 of their best-of-five division series Tuesday at Camden Yards.

There’s no way the Orioles could have won without Bonilla and Wells, and both acknowledged the irony of almost having become ex-Orioles.

“We’re happy the big man [Angelos] kept us,” Bonilla said after his first postseason home run in 14 games, a grand slam that highlighted a five-run sixth inning that broke open a close game.

“Me and Boomer [Wells] didn’t want to go anywhere.”

Said Wells, the pitcher who quieted the major leagues’ top hitting club over 6 2/3 solid innings, “They were speculating a whole lot about a trade at that time. I’ve been in that situation before. If it happened, it happened. I’m just glad to be an Oriole.”

Baltimore hit four home runs, which shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

But Wells, superb after the fourth inning, was definitely a surprise.

At one point, he retired nine consecutive batters before Cleveland shortstop Omar Vizquel ended the streak with a ground-rule double with one out in the seventh. After Kenny Lofton’s run-scoring infield single, Kevin Seitzer lined a pitch off Wells’ left ankle and Baltimore Manager Davey Johnson turned the game over to the bullpen.

Baltimore’s relief corps, shaky at times this season, responded by shutting down the Indians the rest of the way.

“In our ballpark, you don’t rest until the last one’s out,” Johnson said. “You don’t take anything for granted.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out the Orioles would be dangerous if they continued their torrid regular-season home-run hitting in the playoffs. Game 1 left no doubt that the Orioles are still sizzling.

After hitting a major league record 257 this year, Brady Anderson, B.J. Surhoff--he had two--and Bonilla homered Tuesday.

Bonilla’s slam, the third in Oriole playoff history but the first by a non-pitcher, sent the sellout crowd of 47,644 into a frenzy. Later, Bonilla admitted it was difficult to concentrate with the crowd roaring as he prepared to face a 3-2 pitch from reliever Paul Shuey.

“It would be nice if we had a quiet rule like tennis or golf, but we don’t,” Bonilla joked after joining pitchers Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally as the only Orioles to hit playoff grand slams.

“The at-bat before, I had a man on second and [Cleveland starter Charles] Nagy threw me some tough pitches,” he said of the fifth-inning strikeout. “When I came up with the bases loaded, I was looking to hit a ball below my hands and to make sure I didn’t chase anything up in the strike zone.”

Shuey’s pitch was apparently to Bonilla’s liking because it wound up in the right-field bleachers.

Cleveland, which led the majors with a .293 batting average, couldn’t keep pace. Right fielder Manny Ramirez hit the Indians’ only homer, a solo shot off Wells in the second.

That Wells would last into the seventh inning seemed unlikely, particularly since he had called his final three regular-season starts, “hideous.”

After giving up 21 earned runs, 21 hits and eight home runs in going 0-1 in those starts, Wells rebounded with a standout performance.

“Basically, my game plan was to keep the ball down,” said Wells, 11-14 during the regular season. “I was just trying to avoid hanging any pitches. If you do, well, you saw what Bobby did.”

The victory gives the wild-card Orioles an advantage over the heavily favored Indians, according to shortstop Cal Ripken Jr.

“A Game 1 win gives us a lot of confidence that we can play with the Indians,” said Ripken, who had three hits. “The reason we got the wild-card spot was that our pitching picked up down the stretch. Today, we got the lead and held it, then got the big explosion in that one inning.”