Their Last Stand Is a Last Strand

They left October on the bases, stranding 14 runners and wasting another monumental performance by Mike Mussina. They won more games than any American League team, but that was small solace Wednesday.

The Baltimore Orioles lost to the Cleveland Indians, 1-0, and lost the American League pennant in 11 riveting innings of Game 6 of their championship series.

“We kept knocking on the door and it wouldn’t open,” Eric Davis said of the missed opportunities. “We couldn’t get the clutch hit when we needed it.

“We felt we were in the driver’s seat coming home, but we didn’t get it done.”

The end of a series that was both wacky and wonderful came in the 11th inning, when Tony Fernandez shattered the zeros by hammering a split-finger fastball from Armando Benitez for a home run, deflating a Camden Yards crowd of 49,075 that had been trying to match the Jacobs Field decibel level.

“We were one step away last year and one step away this year,” catcher Chris Hoiles said. “It’s tough to swallow.”

The Orioles lost to the New York Yankees in last year’s championship series and lost to the Indians, who advance to the World Series against the Florida Marlins, while still believing they are the better team.

“I do believe that,” assistant general manager Kevin Malone said in a quiet clubhouse, “but I also think the Indians were playing better than we were and I also think they got a lot of breaks. Sometimes, of course, you make your own breaks.”

The Indians won Game 3 by scoring the decisive run on a failed squeeze play. They won Game 4 by scoring two runs on a wild pitch. Could the Orioles get a break Wednesday?

Leadoff man Brady Anderson walked. Then, on a hit and run, Roberto Alomar hit a grounder up the middle, but shortstop Omar Vizquel, moving to cover second, was in position to field it, step on the bag for the force, hurdle Anderson and double Alomar at first, setting the tone.

Break, set and match to the Indians.

Another remarkable effort by Mussina unrewarded.

Was he frustrated, disappointed?

“I’m not frustrated or disappointed for myself, but I’m frustrated and disappointed for the team,” he said. “We lost four games by one run and we could have won all of them. We kept doing what we’re supposed to do today, putting guys on base, putting pressure on them, and we couldn’t take advantage of it.

“In that sense it was frustrating, but my job is to keep us in the game, give up a chance to win. I think I succeeded four times in the postseason, but it so happens that in the last two games I pitched against guys who threw as well as I did.

“I’m pleased with the way I threw, but the bottom line is we didn’t win. As I said the other day, I don’t get bonus points for throwing well.”

Working on three days’ rest after striking out 15 in seven innings of Game 3, Mussina pitched eight innings, giving up one hit--a fifth-inning double by David Justice.

He walked two and struck out 10, joining Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson as the only pitchers to strike out 10 or more batters in two games of the same postseason series. In 29 innings of four postseason starts, he permitted only four runs (one in the last 15 innings), fanning 41, another postseason record.

Asked if he could take satisfaction being grouped with Hall of Famers Koufax and Gibson, Mussina said, “No, because those guys usually won.”

His 108th and last pitch of this game was a fastball clocked at 95 mph, striking out Marquis Grissom.

Manager Davey Johnson said he couldn’t ask Mussina to do any more.

“Pitching in the postseason was great fun,” Mussina said, “but I can’t feel good about the way it ended.

“Could I have pitched longer? It doesn’t matter. That’s not my decision. Randy Myers gave us two shutout innings [before Benitez was summoned]. We might have played 20 innings and not scored.”

Charles Nagy matched Mussina’s velocity and artistry with tenacity. The Cleveland bullpen ultimately emerged 4-0. The vaunted Oriole bullpen was 0-4.

Benitez, whose fastball approaches 100 mph, threw the slider that may have turned the series around--when Grissom hit it for a three-run homer to win Game 2 and salvage a split in the first visit to Camden Yards--and he threw that decisive split-finger in the chill of the 11th inning Wednesday.

Johnson, his manager, didn’t question either selection.

“He has a great slider and a great splitter,” Johnson said. “I don’t second-guess the selection. It’s just that when you get behind [2 and 0 to Fernandez] and hang a splitter here at Camden Yards, bad things can happen. If you put yourself in a bad spot, you can get burned.”

The Orioles, at one point this season, may have thought they could let closer Myers leave as an expensive free agent and move Benitez into that role, but they’re not thinking that way now.

General Manager Pat Gillick said Wednesday that re-signing Myers and Anderson, who is also eligible for free agency, are the priorities.

“I don’t think we can stand still,” he said, “but I don’t think we have to do anything radical. We have to improve, but it’s mostly refining what we have.”

Johnson, who is signed through 1998 at $750,000, is likely to be back, although he has a tenuous relationship with owner Peter Angelos. The manager said it would be a long time before he could forget the series and the tough loss that ended it, but he added that the Orioles can take pride in going wire to wire to win the East, winning more games than any other AL team and beating a powerful Seattle team in the division series.

“It’s been a great year, most definitely,” he said.

Perspective? Maybe it’s best provided by Davis, who won’t be going to Florida for the World Series on Friday but will again be going to the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center for a chemotherapy treatment.

“I feel blessed to even be here,” he said, “and I’d hope everyone would feel that way. No one should hang their heads.”