Erickson Leaves ‘Em Buzzing Orioles Blank Indians 3-0 For First Shutout Of Postseason

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 homered Wednesday night to lead the Baltimore Orioles over the Indians 3-0 in the opener of the A.L. championship series.

“We went into a buzzsaw by the name of Scott Erickson,” Indians manager Mike Hargrove said.

With all the attention focused on the superb starters of Atlanta and Florida, pitchers in the A.L. series have been overlooked. Erickson managed something no N.L. 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.

“I had some hits and misses but I lucked out tonight,” Erickson said, citing a few of the line drives the Indians hit.

He relied on his breaking ball, and threw 61 of 90 pitches for strikes. Orioles manager Davey Johnson, knowing how competitive Erickson is, didn’t want to tell him that Myers would pitch the ninth, delegating the task to pitching coach Ray Miller.

“It’s OK,” Erickson said. “It’s not time for personal goals right now.”

Anderson made a great defensive play in the first, leaping to catch Manny Ramirez’s shot, headed for a home run above the 7-foot wall in right-center. Anderson then opened the bottom of the inning the same way he began the Indians-Orioles matchup in last year’s playoffs - with a home run.

“No question about it, Brady’s a big game player,” Johnson said. “He rises to the occasion. He’s not intimidated by any situation he’s in. Maybe it’s from skiing in Tahoe in the winter.”

Erickson, making his first appearance against Cleveland this year, walked none and allowed singles to David Justice in the second, Bip Roberts in the third, Marquis Grissom in the sixth and Matt Williams in the eighth.

Hargrove didn’t think the Indians were hurt by not facing Erickson previously this year.

“He didn’t break in any new pitches or new deliveries,” Hargrove said. “He didn’t throw with his left hand. He just threw very good stuff.”

On Chad Ogea’s very first pitch, Anderson crushed the ball over the 25-foot scoreboard in right field for the 31st leadoff homer of his career.

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.

Orioles 3, Indians 0

Cleveland AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Roberts 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 .250 Vizquel ss 4 0 0 0 0 2 .000 Ramirez rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Thome 1b 3 0 0 0 0 1 .000 Justice dh 3 0 1 0 0 0 .333 MaWilliams 3b 3 0 1 0 0 0 .333 SAlomar c 3 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Giles lf 3 0 0 0 0 1 .000 Grissom cf 3 0 1 0 0 0 .333 Totals 29 0 4 0 0 5 Baltimore AB R H BI BB SO Avg. ByAnderson cf 4 2 2 1 0 1 .500 RAlomar 2b 3 1 1 2 1 0 .333 Berroa rf 3 0 0 0 0 1 .000 EDavis rf 0 0 0 0 1 0 —RPalmeiro 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 .000 Surhoff lf 3 0 1 0 1 0 .333 CRipken 3b 3 0 1 0 1 0 .333 Baines dh 4 0 1 0 0 0 .250 Webster c 3 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Bordick ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 .000 Totals 30 3 6 3 4 4 Cleveland 000 000 000 - 0 Baltimore 102 000 00x - 3 E-MaWilliams (1), Webster (1). LOB-Cleveland 2, Baltimore 7. 2B-ByAnderson (1), CRipken (1). HR-RAlomar (1) off Ogea; ByAnderson (1) off Ogea. RBIs-ByAnderson (1), RAlomar 2 (2). SB-Roberts (1). GIDP-SAlomar, Baines.

Runners left in scoring position-Cleveland 1 (Vizquel); Baltimore 3 (RPalmeiro, Webster, Bordick).

Runners moved up-RAlomar.

DP-Cleveland 1 (Roberts, Vizquel and Thome); Baltimore 2 (CRipken and RPalmeiro), (Erickson, Bordick and RPalmeiro).

Cleveland IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Ogea L,0-1 6 6 3 3 3 3 103 4.50 Anderson 2 0 0 0 1 1 28 0.00 Baltimore IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Erickson W,1-0 8 4 0 0 0 3 90 0.00 RaMyers S,1 1 0 0 0 0 2 15 0.00 IBB-off Anderson (EDavis) 1.

T-2:33. A-49,029 (48,262).