Mussina Upbeat After His Brush With Perfection

Mike Mussina wasn’t about to complain about his bad luck after he once again came tantalizingly close to making baseball history.

Mussina lost his perfect game with two out in the eighth inning Tuesday night and settled for a two-hitter, leading the Baltimore Orioles past the Detroit Tigers, 4-0, at Baltimore.

Mussina, who has flirted with a no-hitter twice before in his seven-year career, retired the first 23 batters before Frank Catalanotto lined a double into the right-field corner.

That was the only baserunner against Mussina (10-5) until Deivi Cruz grounded a single up the middle with one out in the ninth.

“Everybody thinks that doing something like this is disappointing. I don’t know why everyone feels that way,” Mussina said. “No-hitters and perfect games are unique situations. To be disappointed about it is the wrong way to look at it.

“I was excited that I was able to pitch that well, to perform that well and help our team win a game. The guys played great behind me.”

Before Catalanotto’s double, the closest thing the Tigers had to a hit came in the third inning when Oriole third baseman Cal Ripken dived to his left to snare a grounder by Gabe Alvarez. Ripken quickly popped to his feet and threw out Alvarez by a step.

In the second inning, center fielder Brady Anderson’s back was inches from the wall when he caught a fly ball by Tony Clark.

Mussina did not have a three-ball count. The right-hander, who twice before this season spent time on the disabled list, struck out eight.

After the fifth inning, many in the sellout crowd of 47,519 began chanting Mussina’s nickname, “Moose,” with every out. Most stood and applauded after Catalanotto ruined his bid to become the first Oriole to pitch a perfect game.

The Tigers must have felt Mussina benefited from a generous strike zone. Detroit Manager Buddy Bell was ejected by home plate umpire John Hirschbeck in the top of the sixth for arguing a called strike. One pitch later, right fielder Bobby Higginson left the dugout and was tossed from the game by second base umpire Rich Garcia.

Eric Davis homered to extended his hitting streak to a career-high 21 games.

New York 10-10, Oakland 5-4--Darryl Strawberry hit a tying pinch-grand slam and the Yankees scored nine runs in the ninth inning to defeat the Athletics at Oakland and complete a doubleheader sweep.

The go-ahead run scored when Chuck Knoblauch came home from second on a groundout as first baseman Jason Giambi, accidentally kicked in the head by Derek Jeter, lay motionless on the ground with the ball in his mitt.

Strawberry, who tied a major league record with two pinch-slams in a season, also homered in the first game as the Yankees won, 10-4. He reached 20 homers for the first time since 1991, the last of his nine straight 20-homer seasons.

Kansas City 12, Minnesota 4--Hipolito Pichardo pitched 7 1/3 strong innings at Minneapolis and the Royals set season highs for hits and runs.

Every starter had at least one hit for Kansas City, which entered the game ranked 13th in the American League in runs with 479. Jeff King drove in three runs and Jermaine Allensworth scored three times. The Royals collected 16 hits.

Texas 11, Toronto 9--Carlos Delgado hit three home runs for the Blue Jays, but they were not enough to overcome Todd Stottlemyre’s solid debut for the Rangers at Arlington, Texas.

Stottlemyre (1-0), traded from St. Louis to the Rangers on Friday in a four-player deal, struck out eight in 5 2/3 innings.

He gave up two earned runs and six hits, and left with Texas leading, 10-3, tipping his cap when the sellout crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Juan Gonzalez went one for four with a double and a strikeout for the Rangers.

Boston 2, Seattle 1--Steve Avery and two relievers combined on a two-hitter and John Valentin snapped a seventh-inning tie with an RBI groundout at Seattle.

Avery (8-4) gave up both hits in six innings before Derek Lowe and Tom Gordon provided hitless relief.

Ken Griffey Jr., who leads the AL with 41 home runs, went one for four and failed to homer in his fifth game in a row.