Angels Can Only Watch as Orioles Get the Roll

BALTIMORE —  Angel third baseman Rene Gonzales helplessly stood on the infield grass Sunday, watching, hoping, actually coaxing the baseball to roll foul.

It dribbled up the line, started to creep toward the dirt and then stopped, sitting on the edge of the grass as 45,462 fans in Oriole Park at Camden Yards screamed.

Cal Ripken Jr.’s hit with the bases loaded, score tied and two out went all of 70 feet, including the roll. However, it proved to be the crushing blow in the Orioles’ 4-3 comeback victory over the Angels.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Gonzales, who rushed to a clubhouse phone after the game and called Ripken. “I said, ‘Wonder what the IBM tale-of-the-tape is on that thing? You going to take that?’ ”

Said Ripken, who had been in a two-for-28 slump: “Why, I have to, don’t I?”

The Angels (6-4) played well enough to win and benefited from more baserunning blunders by the Orioles, but they couldn’t overcome the dribbler off the end of Ripken’s bat.

“They call it, ‘Oriole Magic,’ ” Gonzales said.

Said Ripken: “It was pure luck, plain and simple.”

The zany scenario was set up in the eighth inning, and just like Saturday’s follies when Baltimore wound up with three baserunners on third base, the Orioles provided further comedy on the basepaths.

Baltimore was behind after Angel Chili Davis’ two-run double in the sixth made the score, 3-2. But in the eighth, Tim Hulett led off with a single against reliever Julio Valera. David Segui sacrificed. Sherman Obando then hit a line drive single up the middle, but strangely, Hulett began breaking back toward second base. By the time Hulett realized the ball was hit into the outfield, he could advance only to third.

The Angels probably thought they had the Orioles right where they wanted them when Mark McLemore walked on five pitches, loading the bases. Angel Manager Buck Rodgers decided to bring his infield in for left-handed hitter Brady Anderson.

Valera battled Anderson for eight pitches and believed he had him struck him out on a 2-and-2 forkball, but Anderson barely tipped the ball. The ball went in, then out, of catcher John Orton’s mitt. “I don’t know how it came out of there, but it was costly,” Orton said.

With the crowd standing on its feet and chanting, “Brady-Brady-Brady,” Anderson turned on Valera’s fastball and sent it toward the right-field wall. Right fielder Tim Salmon leaped, but the ball deflected off his glove as he fell against the wall. He hurriedly picked up the ball, hoping the hit didn’t clear the bases.

No problem. The only one who scored was pinch-runner Harold Reynolds. Obando, for some unknown reason, was tagging up at second, and McLemore actually came dangerously close to passing him on the basepaths. So, after Anderson’s 318-foot single off the scoreboard, the score was tied.

After Mike Devereaux grounded out to Gonzales, Ripken stepped to the plate with two out and the bases loaded. Struggling just to make contact, Ripken swung mightily on a 1-and-1 forkball, and the ball squirted off the end of his bat. Gonzales, who was playing at normal depth, had no chance.

“It’s the only stadium where the grass is cut right up to the line,” Gonzales said. “It would have been foul at any other stadium in baseball.”

The Angels were disheartened about losing a game they believed they should have won, but left town feeling pretty good about themselves.

“I think we’ve shown people we’re a better ballclub than people realized,” Salmon said. “I don’t think people should write us off so quickly. The trip definitely built up some self-esteem.”

Even Valera, who had never blown a save in his brief bullpen career, said the experience will prove invaluable. It may have cost Mark Langston--who pitched six innings without pain from his strained rib cage muscle--a victory, but there will be plenty of other opportunities.

“Now, I know how a reliever feels when he gives up a starter’s win,” Valera said. “I already knew what it felt like as a starter. I’ve been there. It’s not a good feeling. But instead of waiting five days, I can go back out there next game. Believe me, I can’t wait.”

Said Davis: “People kept talking about all the pressure on our young guys. Hey, look at the way they’ve handled themselves. I think they’re teaching us something.”