Bad Pitch

Twenty-three days had passed since Mike Mussina's last defeat. He had gone all year without losing at Camden Yards. And he had earned his reputation as a stopper by going 46-23 in his career when pitching after an Orioles loss, including 4-1 this season.Yesterday, he seemed a pretty good choice to reverse his club's downward spiral.Yesterday, it wasn't in the cards, even with the Orioles showing their ace.Two bad pitches in 6 1/3 innings were Mussina's undoing, as the Milwaukee Brewers completed their sweep with a 6-4 victory that brought some boos from what remained of a crowd of 47,448 at Camden Yards.

NEW YORK -- Jeff Nelson had a tough act to follow as he came out of the New York Yankees' bullpen for the seventh inning of yesterday's Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.Not starter David Cone, who was in constant trouble for six innings before leaving with the score 2-2. The pressure on Nelson was coming from a different place.Before yesterday, Yankees relievers had given up one earned run in 23 2/3 postseason innings.In the blink of an eye, Nelson blew up those numbers.He faced seven batters in the seventh inning, hardly the kind of swift work being done lately by New York's bullpen.

One of the premier money pitchers in the majors and the hottest starter on the Orioles staff collide today in Game 2 at Oriole Park.The matchup of Cleveland Indians veteran Orel Hershiser and the Orioles' Scott Erickson provides a number of contrasts.Hershiser, who is 8-1 with a save in postseason play, is the only man to be the Most Valuable Player of the championship series in both leagues.But Camden Yards has not been kind to the 38-year-old right-hander, and he did not finish the regular season well (1-2, 5.81 ERA in September)

CHICAGO -- Win or lose, good or bad, David Wells always has come out to talk with reporters after he pitches. But not last night, after one bad pitch cost him in the Orioles' 3-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox.The Orioles have lost 13 of their last 18 games, have fallen 3 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees, and should they lose tonight, their record will fall to .500 -- the first time they would have an even number of wins and losses since April 1,...

NEW YORK -- When the damage was done, after the New York Yankees had broken up a marvelous duel between Stanford alumni with a fractured three-run rally, Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina stood on the mound and shook his head.Utter disgust. It was a throwing error by Mussina, the first error by the Orioles in 64 innings, that led to the Yankees' 3-0 victory last night. Jack McDowell shut out the Orioles on three hits, the same number Mussina gave up in seven innings."It's probably the best stuff I've had in awhile," said Mussina, whose streak of eight straight wins ended.

Any time a team wins a game without an RBI, as the Orioles did in Thursday night's 3-2 win over Detroit, a lot of things have to go right.Or, in the case of the Tigers, wrong. Very wrong.In this instance it was a balk called on left-hander David Wells that produced the winning run. But there was an even more significant play three innings earlier that had as much -- or more -- bearing on the outcome and went almost unnoticed.Obviously we're not talking about Cecil Fielder's error on Rafael Palmeiro's erratically bouncing ground ball that produced the Orioles' first two runs.

Jamie Moyer has heard all the theories about the pitching disease known as the first-inning blahs. He's tried most of the remedies, but at the moment he doesn't have a cause or a clue, let alone a cure.In his past four starts, the Orioles' left-hander has given up a total of 10 runs in the first inning -- four Monday night against the Brewers and two in each of his three previous outings. The perception is that something is wrong with his preparation.Chances are it's something even simpler than that.

NEW YORK -- These are not the best of times for Orioles relief pitchers. But Mark Williamson said the recent work overload was not responsible for yesterday's 4-2 loss to the Yankees."

DETROIT -- It was the kind of confidence-shaking, sound-barrier-shattering, three-day barrage that could send a pitching staff reeling into a lengthy slump, but the Orioles headed off to New York hoping to put it all far behind them."

Rangers huff and puff, but can't blow Olson's save this timeARLINGTON, Texas -- Reliever Gregg Olson was beginning to wonder. He had blown one save opportunity this year and he was flirting with disaster in another.He came on to pitch the ninth inning of last night's 6-5 victory over the Texas Rangers and promptly got himself into another unsavory predicament. He gave up a leadoff double to pinch hitter Doug Dascenzo and had to get the last two outs of the game with the potential tying run at third base.