Wanted: a Couple of Shadowy Guys

The art formerly known as pitching may turn into shadow boxing today when Baltimore Oriole ace Mike Mussina squares off against Cleveland Indian right-hander Charles Nagy in Game 6 of the American League championship series at Camden Yards.

First pitch is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. EDT, and if the sun is shining in Baltimore, as it has brilliantly for the past week or so, the field will be awash in streaks of bright light and dark shade for several innings, making it very difficult for batters to see pitches.

You can just imagine that ring announcer on the stadium public-address system after the national anthem: Let’s get ready to stumble!

“It’s hard enough facing Mussina at night,” groaned Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar Jr., whose Indians have a 3-2 edge in the best-of-seven series.

“You can see the ball [in the twilight], but you see a black ball with no rotation. If you can’t see the rotation, you can’t really adjust to the pitch, and you wind up swinging late.

“It’s the same for both teams, but psychologically, when you don’t swing well in your first two at-bats, it can mess up your mechanics and make it tougher to hit late in the game, when the shadows aren’t a factor.”

Mussina started Game 3 in Jacobs Field in twilight conditions, and he made the Indians look like a bunch of guys stumbling around in a dark basement trying to find a light switch.

Their swings were defensive, as if they were trying to put the ball in play instead of trying to drive it, and the results were predictable: The Oriole right-hander struck out 15 in seven innings.

Indian right-hander Orel Hershiser, still resourceful at 39 but hardly a power pitcher, struck out six in the first three innings, and 13 pitchers from both teams combined for 33 strikeouts in Cleveland’s 2-1, 12-inning victory.

“It’s not as difficult [seeing the ball] in Camden Yards as it is in Jacobs Field,” Oriole center fielder Brady Anderson said. “You just have to put it in your head that it’s the same for both teams, so why worry about it?

“I did that the last time against [Seattle Mariner ace] Randy Johnson [in Game 4 of the division series] and it worked out fine . . . except for the fact I struck out four times.”

As dominant as Mussina was in Game 3 on Saturday, even he conceded it’s “unfair to start a game at 4 p.m., when no one can see.” Ray Miller, Oriole pitching coach, said the twilight favors a pitcher such as Mussina, whose repertoire includes a variety of fastballs, a knuckle-curve and a changeup.

But Nagy, who gave up four runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings of the Indians’ 5-4 victory in Game 2, also has a fastball, a sinking fastball, a curve and a split-fingered fastball, and if he’s on, he can be very difficult to hit in the twilight.

“If you can’t see the ball, the more pitches you throw, the tougher it is for the batter,” Miller said. “That’s because a lot of hitters will just try to sit on one pitch and not swing at any other pitch.”

The conditions could dictate some strategic changes too. Baltimore put the leadoff batter on in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings of Game 3, but Manager Davey Johnson didn’t try one sacrifice bunt. None of those leadoff runners scored.

“But I think we might have to play for one run early,” Oriole outfielder Eric Davis said. “The people who set the game times don’t know how tough it is to see the ball. It’s tough facing major league pitchers in the shadows.”

It’s also tough calling major league pitches and catching major league fly balls in the shadows.

“The umpire can’t see the strike zone real well [in the twilight], and you have to take advantage of that,” Alomar said. “The fastball is the pitch you can control the most, and if you can get an edge with it, then you start overusing it a little if you’re getting the calls.”

In Game 3, Cleveland center fielder Marquis Grissom lost Anderson’s ninth-inning fly ball at dusk, allowing the Orioles to score the tying run.

“Let’s just hope that it’s nice and cloudy,” Oriole outfielder B.J. Surhoff said, “so there’s darkness everywhere instead of brightness and shade.”