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. NoOV V its t turn sak heck the C IS Glavine pitches Braves to 7-1win 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. 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