Orioles could be third to go all the way

Sporting News, The, August 18, 1997 by Peter Schmuck

The Orioles are traveling in some fast company. They are trying to become only the third A.L. team ever to spend every day of a season in first place, and it appears they can succeed.

That was no lock four weeks ago, when the Yankees were closing fast and the Orioles were struggling to find some semblance of offensive continuity. But there is every reason to believe they will join the 1927 Yankees and the 1984 Tigers as the only clubs to go wire-to-wire.

Not an easy task, especially in this era of divisional play and unrestricted free agency, which has led to unprecedented parity. The Orioles, quite simply, have put all the right pieces together, and they are making a run for the ages.

General manager Pat Gillick put together a playoff contender a year ago and -- with significant input from manager Davey Johnson -- has refined it into a potential multiple world champion. Anyone who doubts this should take a look back over the past month, when the Orioles pulled out of a midseason slump to reassert themselves in the East, even though the schedule and circumstances seemed to be conspiring to pull them off the top of the standings.

The Yankees had cut the division lead from 9 1/2 games to 3 1/2 games just as the Orioles embarked on a three-week stretch in which they would play three of 18 games at home. They collected themselves, won five of six on the road, returned home to sweep a series from the Rangers, then played very well on a nine-game West Coast swing -- gaining ground even though the Yankees were playing a home-heavy schedule over the same period.

"We've had that kind of adversity all year," Johnson says. "We're 40-20 (through last Friday) on the road. We've played awfully well."

Johnson went to the playoffs last year with a team that hit more home runs than any other team in major league history, and yet he came back convinced that team was too flawed to get the World Series this year.

So Gillick let several of the big boppers become free agents and reconfigured the club to play a more versatile brand of baseball. The results have been astonishing. The Orioles entered the week with the best record in baseball and have cleared another major hurdle in their uneven schedule.

"There are a lot of reasons," Johnson says. "We improved our defense. We improved our bullpen from day one. We have a few more guys who can hit behind runners. We still aren't blessed with tremendous speed, but we can start more runners than we could last year."

The proof is in the way they have played the other top teams in the league. The Orioles were a combined 11-27 against the three division champions a year ago and 22-40 against teams in legitimate contention for a division title or a wildcard berth. They got to the playoffs last year because they dominated the teams at the other end of the standings.

"Last year, we weren't beating the good teams," pitching ace Mike Mussina says. "There were certain teams that we needed to play well against -- the Yankees, Cleveland, Texas, the teams that were leading their divisions or were definite contenders. I don't know what the exact numbers are, but we played under .500 against them."

This year, they have a winning record against every contending team except the surprising Angels. They have dominated the Yankees (4-0) and Mariners (6-3) and are singularly responsible for knocking the Rangers out of contention in the West, with 10 victories in 11 games.

"We're playing O.K. this year against the teams that have a chance to make the playoffs," Mussina says. "That doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to beat them in the playoffs, but it does mean we are doing pretty well. If we hold our own against the teams that are contending, we're going to be all right."

There still is the matter of getting that far, of course, but the schedule lightens considerably. The Orioles are home for all but three games the rest of August before September presents the biggest challenge of the regular season.

They play 17 straight against the Marlins, Yankees and Indians in a test of fire that will determine whether they can spend every day of the season in first place. That stretch includes eight games in 11 days (September 4-14) against the Yankees, who dominated thee Orioles last year but are winless in a pair of two-games series this season.