It’s the Brady Punch

It has been a relatively peaceful year for Brady Anderson compared to 1996, when the Baltimore Oriole center fielder stirred a media frenzy by clubbing 30 home runs by the All-Star break.

Anderson didn’t hold a news conference in every road city this season. There were no questions about breaking Roger Maris’ record. No one wondered how he could hit 50 homers after never hitting more than 21 in eight previous years.

But truth be told, Anderson missed the limelight. “I’ll take being bothered and hit 50 home runs,” he said.

Anderson didn’t come close, finishing 1997 with 18 homers, but he did find a way to thrust himself back into the national spotlight in Game 1 of the American League championship series Wednesday night.

Anderson robbed Manny Ramirez of a homer in the top of the first, homered in the bottom of the first, and doubled and scored in the third, helping the Orioles defeat the Cleveland Indians, 3-0, before 49,029 in Camden Yards.

Scott Erickson continued Baltimore’s impressive postseason pitching run with an eight-inning four-hitter, Randy Myers completed the shutout with a scoreless ninth, and Roberto Alomar added a two-run homer as the Orioles scored a decisive knockout in Round 1 of the best-of-seven series.

“I look at it logically,” Anderson said, assessing the importance of winning the first game. “We need four wins. We’re one step closer.”

The first two steps toward victory Wednesday night were provided by Anderson, who packed two of his three highlights into back-to-back pitches in the first inning.

With two outs in the top of the first, Ramirez sent a fly ball toward the wall in right-center, but Anderson, after a long run, leaped at the seven-foot fence and made the catch above the wall to end the inning.

Moments later, when Cleveland starter Chad Ogea hung a breaking ball on his first pitch of the game, Anderson drilled it into the right-field bleachers for his fifth leadoff homer of the season.

“When Ramirez hit that ball, I thought, ‘Oh, no,’ ” Oriole third baseman Cal Ripken Jr. said. “But that catch was one of those moments that energizes a club. Then Brady comes up and pops the ball out on the first pitch.

“It’s a great thing having a leadoff guy with power.”

Anderson, who timed his run and jump perfectly on Ramirez’s drive, said he expected to make the catch.

“Part of me wishes he would have hit it a couple of feet farther so I could have made a really good catch,” Anderson said. “I didn’t really get a rush from the actual catch, but I did from the reaction of the fans.”

Showing his offensive versatility, Anderson opened the third inning by slapping a double down the left-field line. Alomar then feasted on another hanging Ogea breaking ball, sending it into the right-field seats for a homer and a 3-0 lead.

“Brady is a big-game player,” Oriole Manager Davey Johnson said. “Ever since I’ve been here, for two years, he’s been a big-game player. He rises to the occasion, and he’s not intimidated by these situations. . . . He was his usual stellar self.”

So was Erickson, who mixed a crisp fastball with a nasty sinker and a heavier diet of breaking balls to win his second playoff game.

The right-hander, who has given up only 11 hits and three earned runs in 14 2/3 playoff innings, struck out three, walked none and got 12 ground-ball outs. He threw only 90 pitches, 61 for strikes.

Only once did the Indians get a runner to third, when Bip Roberts stole second and advanced when catcher Lenny Webster’s throw went into center field in the third inning, but Erickson got Omar Vizquel to ground out to end the inning.

Erickson also helped himself by grabbing Sandy Alomar’s eighth-inning shot up the middle to start a 1-6-3 double play.

“He was tough because he used all his pitches on all the counts,” said Roberts, the Indian second baseman. “You couldn’t wait for a fastball inside because he’d throw a sinker down and away.”

Erickson didn’t get too excited about his performance.

“I guess it was all right,” he said, “but we’re a long way from finished. This won’t mean a lot if we don’t win three more games.”

Erickson’s dominance was all the more important because Ogea settled into a groove after the third, working his way out of a second-and-third, no-out jam in the fourth and holding the Orioles scoreless in the fifth and sixth.

Cleveland reliever Brian Anderson added a scoreless seventh and eighth, and the Orioles finished with only six hits, hardly overwhelming the Indians. But Cleveland couldn’t put a dent in Erickson.

“It was a dominant Erickson game,” Johnson said. “No question about it.”

It was a dominant Brady Anderson game too.

“Brady really set the tone,” Roberts said. “He took a home run away, and then he hit one in the first inning.

“You talk about momentum . . . That looked like a momentum swing to me.”

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AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

SERIES AT A GLANCE

(Baltimore leads series 1-0)

* Game 1: Baltimore 3, Cleveland 0

* Game 2: Today, at Baltimore, 5 p.m.

* Game 3: Saturday at Cleveland, 1:15 p.m.

* Game 4: Sunday at Cleveland, 4:30 p.m.

* Game 5: Monday at Cleveland, 5 p.m.*

* Game 6: Wednesday at Baltimore, 1:15 p.m.*

* Game 7: Oct. 16 at Baltimore, 5:15 p.m.*

* if necessary