Orioles’ Big-Bang Approach Falls Short

There is the temptation to portray the error as a symbolic final twist to the morality play that was Roberto Alomar in the postseason, but the plot line went beyond that.

The Baltimore Orioles lived and died by the home run. Not enough team speed. Not enough ability to manufacture runs. Too much “I” and not enough “we” until it was almost too late.

Assistant general manager Kevin Malone laid it out Sunday after Andy Pettitte, much like Jimmy Key in Game 3, “exploited our over-aggressiveness, which is the weakness in our long-ball approach.”

The Orioles hit three more home runs Sunday but got only one other hit as the New York Yankees discarded the wild card, 6-4, and won the American League pennant, their 34th and first since 1981.

Alomar allowed a double-play grounder to roll between his legs in the third inning, and Scott Erickson, who tends to let those things trouble him, yielded two more homers in a three-homer, six-run inning from which Baltimore couldn’t recover.

Thus, George Steinbrenner won this War of the Wallets from Peter Angelos and may as well have staked claim to Camden Yards, since his Yankees were 9-0 here this year while dominating the Orioles, 14-4.

“That’s embarrassing and something I can’t explain,” Baltimore Manager Davey Johnson said, referring to 0-9 on his home turf. “They got us when we were beat up and they got us when we were playing good baseball. They pitched and hit better than we did in this series.”

There will be changes in the one-dimensional approach of the Orioles. Angelos spent $50 million. It will be spent on better balance next year.

“I still think we have better players than the Yankees, but they have a better team,” Malone said. “I wouldn’t trade them player for player, but they beat us with balance and versatility. We’ve got to add some team speed, be able to manufacture runs.

“We’re also a little white-collar and we need to be more blue-collar. We need to add a couple grinders. I don’t know if I’m putting it correctly, but we have a team of superstars, a veteran team, and we were too ‘I’ oriented for too long. We jelled some in the second half, became more ‘we’ oriented and realized what it took to win, but it was tough catching the Yankees, who were a ‘we’ team all year.”

The Orioles set a major league record with 257 home runs. They bombed the mistakes of pitchers who got too much of the plate. Key and Pettitte kept them off balance, moved it in and out, up and down, tempting the aggressive Orioles to chase pitches on the corners or out of the strike zone.

Said Johnson: “We like the ball up in the zone. If you keep the ball down on us, if you throw it soft, keep it away from us. . . .”

Pettitte, the AL’s probable Cy Young Award winner, went eight innings Sunday. Todd Zeile hit a solo homer in the sixth, Eddie Murray another in the eighth.

Bobby Bonilla, a pathetic 0 for 19 at the time, hit a two-run homer against John Wetteland in the ninth.

The Orioles, who hit nine homers in four games of the division-series victory over Cleveland, hit nine more against the Yankees, but batted only .222.

Of the 19 runs they scored in the league championship series, all but one was the result of a home run or out. They were five for 31 with runners in scoring position, one for 15 with two outs and runners in scoring position.

“You look at the Yankees,” Johnson said. “They’ve got five guys that can run. We’ve got two. We’re a good club, but are we a championship club yet? We’re close. And with more experience, we’ll get closer.

“But . . . “

Well, Johnson said, the Orioles need younger players who can run “and that’s imperative.”

Added batting coach Rick Downs, who will soon interview for the Angel managerial job and may even be the favorite if General Manager Bill Bavasi gets the call:

“All season long, we haven’t really worked at manufacturing runs, hit and runs, bunting ‘em over. We’ve relied on two base hits and homers. That’s been our existence. We had to go with what got us here.”

How the Orioles might change is difficult to predict. Zeile and David Wells will probably leave as free agents. Murray is expected to be re-signed for one more year.

Malone talked about a need for “hard-nosed, win-at-all-cost grinders.” General Manager Pat Gillick cited improvements in speed, pitching and a little better defense.

“We need to get younger, but I’m proud of our guys,” said Gillick, who built the former Toronto dynasty in the East. “We were below .500 last year, won the wild card, beat the team [Cleveland] most people considered a favorite to win the whole thing and gave New York a very good fight. I thought we could outscore them, but Key, Pettitte and their bullpen came up big.”

Game 5 got away from the Orioles when the ground ball from Bernie Williams rolled between Alomar’s legs in the third. A two-run inning became six when Erickson couldn’t shut it down, giving up ensuing homers to Cecil Fielder and Darryl Strawberry. Erickson said the error didn’t bother him, that he simply made bad pitches. Alomar said he was expecting a hop he didn’t get.

“Everybody makes errors,” he said. “It was one play. There was a lot of game left. Scott left some pitches up and we couldn’t come back.

“I think we have a team that matches up to New York, but I have to admit they hit better, pitched better and played better than us in this series.”

The furor over the spitting incident never really abated for Alomar, who maintained his focus and played well despite it. Will the winter heal wounds?

“I hope so,” he said. “It’s over with. I’ve tried to put it behind me, but it’s all you guys want to talk about.”

There weren’t quite enough long balls from the Orioles to talk about anything else, or as manager Johnson said, “Nobody remembers who finished second in the ALCS.”