Mussina Has One-Hitter, 15 Strikeouts

Mike Mussina held the Minnesota Twins hitless through six innings and settled for his third career one-hitter, striking out a club-record 15, as the Baltimore Orioles cruised to a 10-0 victory Tuesday night.

Ron Coomer ended Mussina’s no-hit bid with a solid opposite-field single with two outs in the seventh. Mussina walked two batters, and two Twins reached on errors in the ninth inning.

“When you get done with a game like this, everybody comes to you and says, ‘You look different today.’ But I didn’t go out with any special frame of mind,” Mussina said. “Every pitch that I made a mistake on, they either took it or fouled it off.”

It was a rare gem in an otherwise unpleasant season for Mussina (7-10), whose lackluster record can be attributed heavily to a lack of run support. He came in getting only 3.29 runs per nine innings, lowest in the American League.

On this night, Mussina got plenty of offensive backing while lowering his earned-run average to 3.65. Baltimore built a 7-0 lead after five innings, the only suspense was whether Mussina would complete the first no-hitter in the majors this season.

“The way he was throwing, I started thinking about the no-hitter in the second inning,” Oriole Manager Mike Hargrove said. “I got real nervous in the fourth and fifth innings, then when he got to the sixth I started getting excited, thinking he’s got a real shot at this.”

Mussina had 10 strikeouts through five innings and fanned six in a row at one point. He also struck out 15 in the 1997 playoffs.

Albert Belle hit a three-run homer and a two-run double, and Brook Fordyce, playing in his third game with the Orioles after being obtained in a trade with the White Sox, hit two solo homers.

It was the first two-homer game of Fordyce’s career.

Belle has hit at least 20 homers in 10 consecutive seasons.

Baltimore, which traded six veterans in a spree that ended Monday, won its fourth in a row. Newcomer Melvin Mora went three for four with a walk.

Minnesota rookie Mark Redman, who had won four consecutive starts, allowed seven runs and seven hits in four-plus innings.

Redman (9-5) gave up a career-high three homers, and the seven runs equaled the amount he yielded during his four-game winning streak.

The Orioles went ahead, 1-0, in the first without a hit when Redman walked three batters before Chris Casimiro, playing in his second game in the majors, hit a run-scoring grounder.

Fordyce led off the second with a home run, then connected with one out in the fourth to make it 3-0.