Hoping to see all the Cleveland Indians’ cards, Davey Johnson had little choice but to play his trump. Jimmy Key responded with the same kind of brilliance he showed for Toronto five Octobers ago.
Key’s relief work in Game 6 helped Toronto wrap up the 1992 World Series. His three hitless innings out of the bullpen Monday night were vital to a 4-2 victory in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, which preserved the Baltimore Orioles’ chance to reach this year’s Series.
Key was the lifeline between five shutout innings by starter Scott Kamieniecki and a near-disaster by closer Randy Myers in the ninth. Cleveland rallied for two runs on four hits before Myers retired Bip Roberts and Omar Vizquel to leave the tying runs on base.
So instead of celebrating a pennant before 45,068 fans at Jacobs Field, the Indians return to Baltimore leading the best-of-seven series three games to two. The Orioles will start Mike Mussina against Charles Nagy Wednesday and will have Scott Erickson available if they get to a seventh game.
“As crazy as this series has been, I don’t see how anybody can feel confident about anything,” Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove said. “We’d rather not be going back to Baltimore.”
Kamieniecki, starting for the first time since Sept. 24, pitched five innings before leaving with a stiff elbow. Johnson turned a 2-0 lead over to Key, and the score stayed there until the ninth when the Orioles scored on Eric Davis’ pinch home run and a Cal Ripken Jr. single.
“We felt we’d get a good performance from Kamieniecki, and we did,” Johnson said. “The key was Jimmy Key coming up big.”
It was the first relief appearance by Key since he won the deciding game in the ’92 Series for the Blue Jays in Atlanta. He was moved to the bullpen after failing to get through the fifth inning in either of two postseason starts.
Cleveland starter Chad Ogea pitched better than in the series opener at Camden Yards, when he gave up early homers to Brady Anderson and Roberto Alomar. He gave up nothing but singles this time around.
Three of them came in the third inning, however. The Orioles strung together hits by Chris Hoiles, Anderson and Geronimo Berroa to take a 2-0 lead. Berroa’s two-out single followed Ogea’s walk of Alomar, which loaded the bases.
Berroa lined a pitch into center field to score Hoiles and Anderson. First baseman Jim Thome kept things from getting worse by cutting off a throw from Marquis Grissom quickly enough to catch Alomar diving head-first into third base.
Indians manager Mike Hargrove did his part to help Kamieniecki overcome Roberts’ leadoff double in the first inning. He had Vizquel bunting with two strikes, and he fouled out a pitch for the first out. Kamieniecki hit Manny Ramirez with a pitch but then came back to get Thome on an infield pop and David Justice on a grounder to Rafael Palmeiro.
Singles by Roberts and Vizquel put men on first and second with one out for Ramirez. He grounded out to third baseman Matt Williams, advancing both runners, but Thome popped up again. End of threat.
