Tarasco

What the Orioles did yesterday: Rallied for two runs in the ninth to wipe out a 3-1 deficit, then settled for a 3-3 tie when the game was called after 10 innings. Starter Rocky Coppinger threw two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and walking one. Tony Tarasco singled in the tying runs. The Orioles are 4-2-1.What the Orioles will do today: Travel to West Palm Beach to play the Montreal Expos. Mike Mussina will face the Expos for the second time, followed by Rick Krivda, Shawn Boskie, Brian Williams and Giovanni Carrara.

VIERA, Fla. -- Orioles manager Davey Johnson would like to plug a right-handed hitter into the No. 2 spot in the batting order, behind Brady Anderson and ahead of Roberto Alomar and Rafael Palmeiro. It's a role Todd Zeile often filled last season before signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent."You try not to make it real easy for opposing managers to go to their bullpen," Johnson said. "You want to make them think a little bit about it."Johnson isn't thinking about batting Eric Davis second, since the preference is for a good contact hitter.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The agent for Orioles outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds met with general manager Pat Gillick and assistant GM Kevin Malone yesterday to get a better read on his client's status with the club. But whatever talking Jeffrey Moorad did couldn't match the statement Hammonds made in the exhibition opener.Hammonds homered twice in the Orioles' 12-4 win over the Minnesota Twins at Fort Lauderdale Stadium, leading off the fifth with a blast to center field that tied the score, 3-3, and putting another ball into the netting above the left-field fence.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Tony Tarasco had it all figured out. He was going to return to the scene of the crime -- New York City -- and exact his revenge.Little Jeffrey Maier might have robbed the Orioles, but he wouldn't have gotten away with winning an ESPY for "Outrageous Play of the Year.""I was going to come out from the back, reach over his shoulder and snatch it from him," Tarasco said yesterday, smiling.Alas, Tarasco didn't attend the awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall -- ESPN informed him in advance that some crazy hockey goal would win.So, he remains known as The Outfielder Who Lost The Ball To The Kid.Which, truth be told, has its benefits.

Orioles outfielder Tony Tarasco continues to marvel at the chain of events that put him in front of the right-field wall in Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night. He just hopes that when his career is over, he'll be remembered for more than being the guy who was standing in the right place at the wrong time in the 1996 American League Championship Series."Three months ago, I was home thinking about '97," said Tarasco, who spent much of the season on the disabled list after a demotion to the minor leagues and subsequent shoulder surgery.

Until early Wednesday evening, Jeff Maier was just another nameless, faceless Little Leaguer with major-league dreams. What he has become since then speaks volumes about what's going on in the media.Make no mistake; Jeff Maier, who stuck his glove out over the right-field fence at Yankee Stadium in the eighth inning Wednesday, giving a home run to Derek Jeter, is the innocent in this case. After all, 12-year-olds will occasionally let their youthful exuberance get the best of them and young Jeff is no exception.

NEW YORK -- The umpire admitted he blew the call, more or less.Give him credit for that.But don't give him credit for anything else.It was a huge call, it was his job to get it right and he didn't.He said he never saw the kid.Rich Garcia, the right-field umpire, said he never saw the 12-year-old who reached over the fence and pulled in a fly ball hit by Derek Jeter, preventing the Orioles' Tony Tarasco from making a play and giving the Yankees a home run that weighed Game 1 of the American League Championship Series in their favor last night.

NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees are known for developing great young players, but this is ridiculous.Twelve-year-old Little Leaguer Jeff Maier of Old Tappan, N.J., reached over the right-field fence and pulled a fly ball away from Orioles outfielder Tony Tarasco yesterday, turning a likely out into a game-tying home run by Derek Jeter and buying the Yankees time to score a 5-4, 11-inning victory in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series at...

NEW YORK -- Twelve-year-old Jeff Maier dreamed of making a big play at Yankee Stadium, but he never imagined that it might happen before he got out of middle school.The baby-faced Oriole killer reached over the right-field fence yesterday and deflected Derek Jeter's eighth-inning fly ball away from Orioles outfielder Tony Tarasco, turning a likely out into a game-tying home run in the first game of the American League Championship Series."I just leaned over and it jumped into my glove," said Maier, of Old Tappan, N.J., who was mobbed by reporters and cameramen moments after the incident changed the course of Game 1 -- an eventual 5-4 New York victory in 11 innings -- and perhaps the best-of-seven playoff that will determine which team will go to the World Series.

NEW YORK -- Starter Mike Mussina and second baseman Roberto Alomar won Gold Gloves yesterday, honoring their fielding superiority.It is Alomar's sixth straight Gold Glove, and first with the Orioles. Alomar has won Gold Gloves every year he's been in the American League, including his five seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays.Mussina had never won the award before. He is the first Orioles pitcher to win the award since Jim Palmer won his fourth in 1979.Mussina wasn't aware he had won the award until he was told by a reporter as he was leaving Yankee Stadium yesterday.