This One's for the Birds

By MIKE DIGIOVANNA

Oct. 14, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

CLEVELAND —

The way things were going for the Cleveland Indians, you half expected a ninth-inning drive to bounce off the head of a Baltimore Oriole outfielder and over the fence for a home run, or a fly ball to be pulled into the seats by a fan for a homer, or a wild pitch allowing two runs to score.

But the Team of Destiny turned into the Team of Destitution Monday night, the Indians’ string of good fortune running out in Baltimore’s 4-2 victory in Game 5 of the American League championship series before 45,068 at Jacobs Field.

Oriole closer Randy Myers gave the folks in Baltimore palpitations with a shaky ninth inning, giving up two runs on four hits, but second baseman Roberto Alomar made a superb play on Omar Vizquel’s grounder up the middle with the tying runs on second and third to end the game, as the Orioles staved off elimination.

Cleveland still leads the best-of-seven series, 3-2, but the Indians, who won three consecutive one-run games with the help of several freak plays, must return to Camden Yards for Game 6 Wednesday night and face ace right-hander Mike Mussina, who will oppose Indian right-hander Charles Nagy.

“This series proves that momentum doesn’t go game to game, it goes at-bat to at-bat,” said Oriole center fielder Brady Anderson, who singled and scored in the third inning and made a nice running catch of Marquis Grissom’s drive to the warning track in the seventh.

“This has been a great series, every game has been close and has come down to the last out. They have the advantage, but we want to get to Game 7.”

The Orioles almost didn’t make it to Game 6. They scored twice in the third inning on Geronimo Berroa’s two-run single off Indian starter Chad Ogea and two more in the ninth when Eric Davis homered, Rafael Palmeiro doubled and Cal Ripken singled off reliever Paul Assenmacher for a 4-0 lead.

Scott Kamieniecki, making his first start since Sept. 24, and Jimmy Key combined for eight shutout innings, Kamieniecki giving up four hits over five innings before succumbing to elbow stiffness and Key adding three impressive hitless innings. Manager Davey Johnson then turned to Myers, a.k.a. Mr. Invincible.

But David Justice greeted Myers with a single and Matt Williams doubled to left-center, scoring Justice. Game 4 hero Sandy Alomar Jr. flied to right, but Tony Fernandez doubled down the left-field line, scoring Williams to make it 4-2.

Grissom hit a grounder back to the box that Myers knocked down, but the ball squirted behind the mound, Myers slipped and fell trying to field it, and Grissom was safe, as a crowd that had been hushed all evening sprung to life.

Grissom stole second on Bip Roberts’ strikeout and Vizquel followed with a hard grounder up the middle. But Alomar, suffering from a sore groin, gloved it about three steps behind the infield and made an off-balance, across-the-body throw to first in time to get Vizquel.

“Bad groin or not, throwing across your body is the toughest play for a second baseman,” Alomar said. “I wanted to make sure I got in front of it in case it took a bad hop or hit me in the chest. That way only one run would score.”

Myers was almost perfect this season, converting 45 of 46 save opportunities, finishing the regular season with a 1.51 earned-run average, and taking a 2.08 playoff ERA into Monday night, but he was so rocky Johnson had relievers Armando Benitez and Jesse Orosco warming up as the game ended.

“I guess the game just wasn’t close enough for him,” Johnson said. “He feels better when the game’s a little tight, so I’m sure he didn’t mind when they scored. I wasn’t going to get really concerned until [Manny] Ramirez [who hits behind Vizquel] got up.”

Palmeiro admitted the ninth “was a little scary, but we all have faith in Randy. He’ll bounce back.”

What about the Indians? Can they bounce back? If the Atlanta-Florida series goes to Game 7 Wednesday night, the Orioles and Indians will start Game 6 at 4 p.m. EDT in Camden Yards. The last time Mussina started in the twilight, in Game 3 in Jacobs Field, he struck out 15 in seven innings.

“As crazy as this series has been, I don’t feel we can be too confident about anything,” Indian Manager Mike Hargrove said. “Certainly, we’re in a better position than they are, but they have good pitching and they’re a good team. It’s not going to be easy.”

The Indians seemed to be getting most of the good luck in this series, winning Game 3 on a botched suicide squeeze play and Game 4 with the help of a two-run wild pitch, but all that talk of fate and destiny in the Cleveland clubhouse dissipated Monday night, when everything seemed to go right for the Orioles.

The Indians put two runners on in each of the first, third and fourth innings, but they failed to hit a ball out of the infield. Kamieniecki also made a leaping stab of Grissom’s hard chopper up the middle and threw him out with runners on second and third to end the fourth.

Hargrove gave Alomar the green light on a 3-0 count with a runner on in the sixth, but instead of ripping a two-run homer, like he did in the second inning Sunday night, Alomar flied weakly to left.

And Grissom’s long drive to center in the seventh would have likely cleared the wall if not for a stiff wind blowing from left field to right, which held it up long enough for Anderson to make the catch near the fence.

“We still have a chance,” Kamieniecki said. “Until you deep six us, we’ll keep coming out here and competing.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Atlanta vs. Florida

(Marlins lead series, 3-2)

* Game 1: Florida 5, Atlanta 3

* Game 2: Atlanta 7, Florida 1

* Game 3: Florida 5, Atlanta 2

* Game 4: Atlanta 4, Florida 0

* Game 5: Florida 2, Atlanta 1

* Game 6: Tonight at Atlanta, 5 p.m.

* Game 7: Wed. at Atlanta, 5 p.m.*