In the Last of Twilight, the Pitchers Were Gleaming

What evolved into an extraordinary pitchers duel between Mike Mussina and Orel Hershiser began in the fall shadows of late afternoon Saturday.

Game 3 of the American League championship series ended a numbing and record 4 hours 51 minutes later on a squeeze bunt attempt by Omar Vizquel that the Baltimore Orioles and Cleveland Indians saw differently, which seemed appropriate.

Mussina and Hershiser, setting the dominating tone with their impressive accumulation of strikeouts and shutout innings, said neither side could see clearly for most of a game won by the Indians, 2-1, in 12.

“It’s just unfair to go out and play a game at 4 o’clock when no one can see,” said Mussina, the Baltimore right-hander who gave up three hits and one run in seven innings, striking out 15, a championship series record.

Said Hershiser, the 39-year-old Bulldog who pitched seven shutout innings for the Indians, giving up four hits and striking out seven:

“I had good movement and good location, but the sunlight and the shadows helped. Any time I strike out the side [as he did in the third] you know something is up. The last time I struck out the side must have been eight to 10 years ago.

“I mean, if they were having trouble seeing my stuff, think of the trouble our guys were having seeing [Mussina’s].

“He threw the ball unbelievably. He deserved a W. He asserted himself as the ace of that staff.”

Theirs was a brilliant duel in the sun and shadows, and the bullpens followed suit, the 13 pitchers setting another league championship series record with 33 strikeouts.

Mussina and Hershiser had long left by the time it ended, but both were still with it, still in uniform, still on their benches, still caught up in the great plays and misplays, the remarkable series of twists and turns of which Hershiser later recited almost every one and said:

“That’s one of the best games I’ve ever been involved in. I don’t know if it ranks with Carlton Fisk jumping up and down and trying to will that home run fair [to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series], but it has to be close.”

It was reaffirmation of Mussina’s ongoing emergence as one of the game’s best pitchers and reaffirmation that Hershiser maintains a repertoire commensurate with his heart.

It was the snarling, fist-pumping Bulldog against the stoic Moose, who when asked if he was caught up in the duel and could admire what Hershiser was doing, said: “I’m not a fan when I’m playing. I wasn’t caught up in anything more than my job.”

Said Hershiser, by contrast:

“I was feeding off the fact that it was a playoff game and that I was going against one of the best pitchers in the game and a guy who had just beat Randy Johnson twice [in the division series]. I knew we weren’t going to get many runs, if any, and I was just hoping I could make the pitches to keep us in it.

“That’s why I got so excited and showed so much emotion when we got the double plays. I wasn’t trying to show anyone up.

“I mean, I got caught up in being the crusty veteran for a time this year and I’ve cut all those safety wires. I go out there now with all the passion I can generate.”

In his 17th postseason appearance, Hershiser’s record remained 8-1.

Did Mussina, who came within two outs of a perfect game against the Indians in May, take satisfaction from his record strikeouts and masterful performance?

“I only enjoy winning,” he said. “I don’t enjoy accomplishing things that are meaningless in the scheme of things. People aren’t going to look back and say Mussina struck out 15 so give the Orioles an extra point. It’s only an asterisk.

“My job is to keep us close and give us a chance to win, and that can play out in different ways. This time, it was pretty extreme.”

And the shadows contributed to that, he insisted.

“I’ve gotten some off-balance swings before, but not to that extent,” he said. “It was almost impossible to see, and at least half of the 15 strikeouts were the result of that. I mean, the two of us had 13 punchouts in the first three innings. It was too bad it had to be like that.”

Too bad, he meant, that the conditions factored into it. Baltimore center fielder Brady Anderson got a late jump on a Dave Justice fly that fell for a single and contributed to a 1-0 Indian lead in the seventh. Cleveland center fielder Marquis Grissom completely lost an Anderson fly that fell for a double in the ninth, scoring the tying run.

Hershiser, out of the game then, was the first to greet Grissom when he returned to the dugout after that inning.

“If he can’t see it, no one can see it,” Hershiser said later. “He’s one of the best center fielders in the game. He felt that he had let us all down, but he’s the guy that had picked us up in Baltimore [with his decisive home run in Game 2], and it was great that we could pick him up tonight.”

Can the Orioles, down in games, 2-1, pick up the pieces? That remains to be seen, and since Game 4 will be played at night, it will be easier to see.