JQA - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 9, 1997
Erickson shuts down Cleveland to give 0's 1-0 series lead.
BALTIMORE (AP) - Hey, the
American League has great pitchers, too.
Scott Erickson shut down Cleveland on
just four hits over eight innings, and
Brady Anderson and Roberto Alomar
bomered last night to lead the Baltimore
Orioles over the Indians, 3-0, in the open-
er of the AL championship series.
With all the attention focused on the
superb starters of Atlanta and Florida,
pitchers in the AL series have been over-
looked. Erickson managed something no
NL pitcher has accomplished, carrying
Baltimore to the first shutout in this year's
postseason.
Winless in seven postseason starts
before beating Seattle last week, Erickson
got 14 outs on grounders and struck out
three, and Randy Myers followed with a
perfect ninth, extending the Indians'
scoreless streak to 13 innings.
Anderson, meanwhile, opened the
series exactly the same way he began the
Indians-Orioles matchup in last year"s
playoffs - with a home run.
And Alomar, whose 12th-inning homer
in Game 4 won last year's series clincher,
hit a two-run shot in the third off loser
Chad Ogea.
Anderson also made a great defensive
play, leaping to catch Manny Ramirez's
first-inning shot, headed for a home run
above the seven-foot wall in right-center.
Baltimore, seeking its first AL pennant
since 1983, will try to take a 2-0 lead
Thursday night when Jimmy Key pitches
against Charles Nagy of the Indians.
Erickson, making his first appearance
against Cleveland this year, walked none
and allowed just the singles to David
Justice in the second, Bip Roberts in the
third, Marquis Grissom in the sixth and
Matt Williams in the eighth.
Justice was stranded at first, Roberts
was left at third. Grissom was erased
when Roberts lined into a double play and
Williams was rubbed out when Sandy
Alomar hit a comebacker that Erickson
turned into a double play.
On a night that felt like summer - the
game-time temperature was 75 -
Anderson showed flashes of his 1996
form, when he hit 50 homers and set a
major league record with 12 leading off
games.
On Ogea's very first pitch, he crushed
the ball over the 25-foot scoreboard in
right field. Last year, he had opened the
first-round series with a homer off Nagy.
Anderson doubled up the left-center
field gap in the third and Alomar followed
with a homer nearly to the same spot as
Anderson's.
Ogea, 5-2 against the Orioles coming
in, didn't get into much trouble except for
the homers, allowing six hits in six
innings, striking out three and walking
two.
NOTES: It was the first shutout in the
AL championship series since Game 6 in
1995, when Cleveland beat Seattle 4-0....
Eric Davis didn't start because Baltimore
manager Davey Johnson thought it would
be too draining to play Games 1 and 2,
have chemotherapy tomorrow and come
back Saturday for Game 4.
AP PfHCA(
Brady Anderson celebrates with teammates Roberto Alom ni
and Geronimo Berroa after his first-inning solo home run.
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ATLANTA (AP) - First the Alita
Braves got mad. Then they got even.
Tom Glavine pitched shutout balbinto
the eighth inning, Chipper Jones and
Ryan Klesko homered and the Braves
caught everything in outplaying. 4the
upstart Florida Marlins in all phases
winning, 7-1, yesterday to tie the
championship series at one game apiece.
Angry at their own sloppy showing in
the opener, the Braves bounced bak in
sharp fashion, looking every bit like, the
team that's been boss in the NL through-
out the 1990s.
The Marlins lost for the first tin din
their young postseason history. They
looked bad from the beginning, too --
Gold Glove catcher Charles Johs
made his first error of the seasonw
Kenny Lofton's leadoff bunt, and Alex
Fernandez lasted just 2 2/3 innings inhis
shortest start since 1995.
Now, after their first setback infive
playoff games, it will be the Marlis'
turn to prove they can recover from such
a lousy loss. Game 3 will be Friday nht
at Miami when rookie Tony Saunde ;s.3-
0 against Atlanta this year, faces Jhn
Smoltz.
Glavine did his best to restore
Braves' pitching prominence, allowing
three hits in 7 2/3 innings. He retired the
first nine batters and, with an early.-0
lead to work with, cruised until Devon
White's RBI double with two outs in the
eighth - a play, by the way, on which
White was foolishly thrown out trying to
stretch it into a triple. .
Relievers Mike Cather and Mark
Wohlers completed the three-hitter.
Atlanta's fielders, meanwhile, ha$
return to respectability. A day after sver-
al mistakes made all five runs off Greg
Maddux unearned in a 5-3 loss, the-feur
players guilty of the misplays - Jnes,
Klesko, Fred McGriff and Lofton -
each turned in neat grabs.
Klesko and Jones each homered for
the second straight day. Jones drve. in
three runs with three hits, while Keith
Lockhart had three hits and scored three
times.
Fernandez, one of several key play
the Marlins imported in the offseason to
beat the Braves, was 2-0 against ther
this year. But he was tagged for six hits
in his earliest exit since going 2 2/3
innings for the Chicago White Sox on
May 25, 1995.
All in all, these Braves looked very
similar to the ones who, stung early bi
St. Louis last fall in the NLCS, surged
back to outscore the Cardinals, 32-1,0
win the final three games and the sever)-
game series.
It took only one inning in this game 6
see that all the omens were in Atlanta's
favor, as was the scoreboard.
After Jones and Lofton had no trouble
making plays in the top of the fiat,
Lofton opened the bottom half with a
bunt to the left side of the plate that
Johnson reached quickly. But he threw
low past first base on a play scored a
single and an error.
Johnson had gone 175 games since
June 23, 1996, without an error, and st
a major league record for catchers this
year for most consecutive games (123) in
a season without a miscue.
The Marlins, .whodidnot make an
error in Game I and never trailed, fell
behind when Lockhart followed with a
triple off the wall in right-center. Two
outs later, Klesko stood at home pl*
and watched his high drive sail halfway
up the right-field stands for his eighth
postseason homer and a 3-0 lead.
Lockhart, playing in place of injurod
second baseman Mark Lemke, singled
and scored on Jones'-seventh postseasq'n
home run in the third. Lockhart doublod
in the seventh off Felix Heredia, Jones hit
in
mail.
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