Mike Bordick is greeted by Brady Anderson and the rest of the Orioles moments after scoring the game-winning run. (John McDonnell - The Post)

By Dave Sheinin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 9, 2000; Page D1

BALTIMORE, April 8 – The Baltimore Orioles have won four straight games this week, each by different methods. They have done it without their number two starter or their closer, without a victory from their ace, and with their bullpen playing a major role in all four wins.

Today, in weather that ranged from tropical to polar in the course of about an hour, the Orioles stole a dramatic 2-1 victory from the Detroit Tigers in the 10th inning, when Delino DeShields hit a one-out flare in to left field off reliever Doug Brocail and Mike Bordick scored from second base with a headfirst slide.

The victory ensures the Orioles (4-1) of a second straight series victory; a year ago, they didn't win their first series until early May.

"Today was one of those games," said Orioles ace Mike Mussina, who gave up only one run over eight innings but got no decision, "where for the longest time it looked like we didn't have any business being in the game. But somehow we hung in there and hung in there and scored a run. . . . and we end up winning."

The Orioles have been doing that all week, ever since ersatz number two starter Sidney Ponson battled through a rocky second inning on Wednesday to give the Orioles six solid innings, keeping them in a game they should have lost and sparing the bullpen a long night.

The repercussions from Manager Mike Hargrove's decision to stick with Ponson through that second inning Wednesday night still were being felt today, when two fresh bullpen arms – left-hander Chuck McElroy and right-hander Al Reyes (1-0) – combined to pitch two innings of hitless relief.

Mussina said it was "questionable" whether the 1999 Orioles would have won either of the past two games, a 14-10 victory over the Tigers on Friday night, in which they trailed 7-5 in the bottom of the fifth, and today's dramatic win.

"Being 4-1," Mussina said, "I'd say at least one game and probably two . . . we wouldn't have pulled out [last year]."

The Orioles had plenty of opportunities to lose today. As opposed to his Opening Day start, when he lost 4-1 despite not pitching out of the stretch position until the eighth inning, Mussina today seemed to be pitching from the stretch the whole game.

Three times the Tigers failed to score with a runner on third and less than two outs. Two key at-bats against Mussina saved the game.

In the first one, Juan Gonzalez, the Tigers' new superstar who is nursing a sore right hamstring, came to the plate as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the seventh and the Tigers leading 1-0, and Mussina got him to hit a slider into a 6-4-3 double play.

"I was trying to get him to hit a ground ball as best I could," Mussina said. "He's a good fastball hitter. I was trying as best I could to get the ball down and away, knowing it was a big RBI situation and he's not up there to take; he's up there to swing. I tried to play the fringes and got him to hit it right at my shortstop."

An inning later, Detroit's Tony Clark came to the plate with runners on second and third and one out. After a mound visit from Hargrove, during which he gave Mussina the option of pitching to Clark or putting him on base and pitching to Juan Encarnacion, Mussina went after Clark with the infield in and got him to ground to first baseman Will Clark, who threw home to get the runner, as catcher Charles Johnson blocked the plate.

After being shut out for the first seven innings by Tigers starter Hideo Nomo, the Orioles went on to score runs in the eighth and 10th innings in similar ways. Both rallies began with Bordick leading off with a single. Both times, Brady Anderson bunted Bordick over to second. B.J. Surhoff drove home Bordick in the eighth; DeShields got him home in the 10th.

Anderson had only one sacrifice bunt all last season and had a public run-in with then-manager Ray Miller last May in Texas when Miller asked him to sacrifice. Nobody ever accused last year's Orioles of selflessness. But today there was no rancor, just two textbook bunts.

"One thing about this ballclub so far, everyone's willing to do what it takes to win," Hargrove said. "That's a good attitude to cultivate and grow on."