Tim Welke made the stop of the game for Baltimore Wednesday night. Although you won`t find his name on an Orioles` roster, it was a birdbrain play.
Third base umpire Welke kept Carlton Fisk from a two-run, or maybe a three-run, double in the sixth inning when the ball hit him behind the base. The certain extra-base hit for the White Sox with the bases full became a one- run single.
The fluke resulted in Sox runner Scott Fletcher being out at the plate on the play, and the inning finished with the Orioles ahead 2-1 on their way to a 3-1 victory.
Greg Walker, thinking Fisk`s hit had gone into the outfield, rounded second base intending to go to third. He was quickly hung up in a rundown, and Fletcher tried to score from third. He was an easy out as Walker took third.
”I never saw a ball hit the umpire before,” Walker said, ”and I wish I still hadn`t. I never actually saw the ball hit him. I ran into (second baseman) Rich Dauer rounding the base and didn`t know what was happening. When I recovered, it was too late to get back.”
Fisk had bounced the ball off an umpire before, but never when it counted as much.
”If the ball goes into the corner, it will have to come around on the wall for Gary Roenicke to field it,” said Fisk. ”I think three runs would have scored.”
The hard-hit ball gave Welke a red welt on his right side above the hip. The Sox wouldn`t mind giving him a matching one on his head.
”The ball shot up at me, and I had no chance,” Welke said. ”It`s the first time that has ever happened to me.”
”No one wanted to get out of the way any more than the umpire,” said Sox manager Tony LaRussa. ”It`s part of the game, and there`s nothing you can do about it.”
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Rookie right-hander Ken Dixon (2-0) struck out designated hitter Oscar Gamble after that unusual play to hold the one-run lead. Reliever Don Aase faced only 10 hitters in the last three innings for his first save since joining the Orioles.
Britt Burns (3-2) was an unlucky loser. He struck out a career-high 12 batters and, despite the loss, his teammates walked up to him one by one in the clubhouse and shook his hand for his valiant complete-game effort, an eight-hitter.
When Cal Ripken went 1-for-4 Tuesday night in Baltimore`s 9-7 victory and struck out a couple of times, you had to wonder if the Orioles were using an imposter and giving the real Ripken the night off.
If so, the right guy was back at shortstop for Wednesday`s game, the Ripken who hit .421 his previous 19 games against the Sox and also had 8 homers and 21 runs batted in.
His two-run homer off Burns in the fifth broke up the shutout battle between Burns and Dixon and left the Sox left-hander wondering if he made a mistake.
”I usually pitch Ripken away, but I came inside on that pitch because he hit an away pitch up the middle for a single the first time at bat,” Burns said.
”I was 2-0 on the count to him and said, `I`m not going to walk him, challenge him,` and I did. Maybe that wasn`t a good thinking pitch, but it wasn`t a bad pitch.”
Surprisingly, Dauer was Burns` weakness. Hitting .171 entering the game, Dauer was on base with a single to score on Ripken`s homer and homered himself leading off the seventh.
Dauer had three hits against Burns and five against the Sox in the two-game series along with four RBIs. Prior to the Sox arriving in town, he had four hits and one RBI.
”I got the ball up and he hit it,” Burns said. ”But I liked my approach to the game. I threw strikes, and I intend to keep doing that as I`ve done successfully earlier in my career.”
Burns had to throw 52 pitches to keep the Orioles from scoring in the first two innings. In the first, he fanned Fred Lynn, the first of Lynn`s three strikeouts, with the bases full for the last out. He retired three Orioles in a row in the second inning after walking Mike Young and Fritz Connally.
Burns lost control for a while in the second, throwing seven straight balls. Pitching coach Dave Duncan visited him at this point, with a 2-0 count on Rick Dempsey. Burns rallied and struck out Dempsey, then fanned Dan Ford before an excellent play by shortstop Ozzie Guillen ended the threat.
Guillen went to his left to field Dauer`s grounder and threw him out. It was one of his best defensive efforts of the season. The most pleasing aspect of the play was that he made it look easy rather than flashy.
Second baseman Julio Cruz made his second sharp play in a week with his perfected glove toss. On a slow roller that got by Burns, Cruz hurried in and didn`t have time to dig the ball from his mitt and throw, so he shoveled the ball to first to retire Connally in the fourth inning.
But good defense and pitching weren`t enough to overcome Baltimore`s pitching and luck. When you get only six hits, as the Sox did, you can`t afford things like the Welke incident.
”He was in perfect position,” Dixon said.