1996 Division Series: Baltimore Orioles vs Cleveland Indians by Baseball Almanac

1996 Division Series: Baltimore Orioles vs Cleveland Indians

The second installment of the American League Divisional Series recalled the familiar faces of both the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees. Cleveland had swept the 1995 affair against the Boston Red Sox en route to a World Series appearance and the Bronx Bombers had finally started to show glimpses of a dynasty that would dominate the remainder of the decade. This season they were matched up against the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers who were both making their first divisional playoff appearance.

In Game 1, the Texas "freshman" showed little fear after both Juan Gonzalez and Dean Palmer connected for home runs off of Yankees pitcher David Cone. The result was a 6-2 shocker that eliminated the possibility of a previously predicted New York sweep. Juan Gonzalez maintained his momentum at the plate in Game 2 and added two more home runs off of Andy Pettitte. Somehow, the Yanks managed to bounce back in the bottom of the twelfth with a 5-4 effort that evened the series at a game-a-piece. New York hero Bernie Williams took control in Game 3 with an outstanding two-for-three, one RBI performance and capped it off with a three-for-five, two home run victory in Game 4 that earned the pinstripes their fourth trip to the American League Championship Series.

Down in Baltimore, the Orioles stunned the defending American League champions in Game 1 with a 10-4 rally that was "lit off" by a Brady Anderson lead-off home run courtesy of Charles Nagy. Cal Ripken, Jr. and Eddie Murray followed suite in Game 2 sealing a 7-4 win while both going two-for-three with an RBI each. Now down two-games-to-none, the Indians managed their first win in Game 3 after Albert Belle connected for a grand slam in the seventh inning. Unfortunately, it would prove to be too little — too late. The following day, both teams ran neck-and-neck for eight innings until Orioles slugger Roberto Alomar pulled ahead with a tying single in the top of the ninth and a game-winning home run in the top of the twelfth. Alomar's "MVP performance" was rewarded with a 4-3 victory and a ticket to meet the Yankees.

"(Roberto) Alomar spit at umpire John Hirschbeck during the last series of the regular season and that led the umpires to threaten to strike the postseason if Alomar was not suspended immediately. He was not suspended, the umpires (thanks to a court order) did not strike, and the fans both cheered Alomar (in Baltimore) and booed him (in Cleveland)." - Total Baseball VII (Thorn, Palmer, Gershen, 2001)

1996 Division Series 1996 Division Series Patch Baltimore Orioles (3) vs Cleveland Indians (1)
1996 Division Series Fast Facts
Game 1	Date / Box Score	10-01-1996
	Location	Camden Yards
	Attendance	47,644
Game 2	Date / Box Score	10-02-1996
	Location	Camden Yards
	Attendance	48,970
Game 3	Date / Box Score	10-04-1996
	Location	Jacobs Field
	Attendance	44,250
Game 4	Date / Box Score	10-05-1996
	Location	Jacobs Field
	Attendance	44,280
1996 Division Series Fast Facts

1996 Division Series Game 1 Line Score / Box Score
1996 Division Series Game 1 Capsule
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cleveland	0	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	4	10	0
Baltimore	1	1	2	0	0	5	1	0	x	10	10	1
Cleveland Pitcher(s)						Baltimore Pitcher(s)
Charles Nagy (L) Alan Embree (6^th) Paul Shuey (6^th) Julian Tavarez (8^th) -						David Wells (W) Jesse Orosco (7^th) Terry Mathews (7^th) Arthur Rhodes (8^th) Randy Myers (9^th)
Cleveland Home Runs						Baltimore Home Runs
Manny Ramirez (2^nd) - - -						Brady Anderson (1^st) B.J. Surhoff (2^nd) Bobby Bonilla (6^th) B.J. Surhoff (7^th)
1996 Division Series Game 1 Capsule

1996 Division Series Game 2 Line Score / Box Score
1996 Division Series Game 2 Capsule
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cleveland	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	1	0	4	8	2
Baltimore	1	0	0	0	3	0	0	3	x	7	9	0
Cleveland Pitcher(s)						Baltimore Pitcher(s)
Orel Hershiser Eric Plunk (6^th, L) Paul Assenmacher (8^th) Julian Tavarez (8^th)						Scott Erickson Jesse Orosco (7^th) Armando Benitez (8^th, W) Randy Myers (9^th, SV)
Cleveland Home Runs						Baltimore Home Runs
Albert Belle (6^th)						Brady Anderson (5^th)
1996 Division Series Game 2 Capsule

1996 Division Series Game 3 Line Score / Box Score
1996 Division Series Game 3 Capsule
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Baltimore	0	1	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	4	8	2
Cleveland	1	2	0	1	0	0	4	1	x	9	10	0
Baltimore Pitcher(s)						Cleveland Pitcher(s)
Mike Mussina Jesse Orosco (7^th, L) Armando Benitez (7^th) Arthur Rhodes (8^th) Terry Mathews (8^th) -						Jack McDowell Alan Embree (6^th) Paul Shuey (7^th) Paul Assenmacher (7^th, W) Eric Plunk (8^th) Jose Mesa (9^th)
Baltimore Home Runs						Cleveland Home Runs
B.J. Surhoff (4^th) -						Manny Ramirez (2^nd) Albert Belle (7^th)
1996 Division Series Game 3 Capsule

1996 Division Series Game 4 Line Score / Box Score
1996 Division Series Game 4 Capsule
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	R	H	E
Baltimore	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	4	14	1
Cleveland	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	7	1
Baltimore Pitcher(s)								Cleveland Pitcher(s)
David Wells Terry Mathews (8^th) Jesse Orosco (9^th) Armando Benitez (10^th) Randy Myers (12^th, SV) - -								Charles Nagy Alan Embree (7^th) Paul Shuey (7^th) Paul Assenmacher (7^th) Eric Plunk (8^th) Jose Mesa (9^th, L) Chad Ogea (12^th)
Baltimore Home Runs								Cleveland Home Runs
Rafael Palmeiro (2^nd) Bobby Bonilla (2^nd) Roberto Alomar (12^th)								None - -
1996 Division Series Game 4 Capsule

1996 Division Series Hitting Statistics
Name	Pos	G	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	R	RBI	Avg	BB	SO	SB
Manny Alexander Roberto Alomar Brady Anderson Armando Benitez Bobby Bonilla Mike Devereaux Scott Erickson Chris Hoiles Pete Incaviglia Terry Mathews Eddie Murray Mike Mussina Randy Myers Jesse Orosco Rafael Palmeiro Mark Parent Arthur Rhodes Cal Ripken, Jr. B.J. Surhoff David Wells Todd Zeile	pr-3,dh-1 2b cf p rf pr-2,rf-2,lf-1 p ph-1,c-3 pr-1,lf-2 p dh p p p 1b c p ss ph-1,lf-3 p 3b	3 4 4 3 4 4 1 4 4 3 4 1 3 4 4 4 2 4 4 2 4	0 17 17 0 15 1 0 7 5 0 15 0 0 0 17 5 0 18 13 0 19	0 5 5 0 3 0 0 1 1 0 6 0 0 0 3 1 0 6 5 0 5	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 1	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 1 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 0 0	2 2 3 0 4 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 4 0 0 2 3 0 2	0 4 4 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 5 0 0	.000 .294 .294 .000 .200 .000 .000 .143 .200 .000 .400 .000 .000 .000 .176 .200 .000 .444 .385 .000 .263	0 2 2 0 4 0 0 3 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2	0 3 3 0 6 0 0 3 4 0 4 0 0 0 6 2 0 3 1 0 5	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals			149	43	6	0	9	25	23	.289	17	40	1
1996 Division Series Hitting Statistics
Name	Pos	G	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	R	RBI	Avg	BB	SO	SB
Sandy Alomar, Jr. Paul Assenmacher Albert Belle Casey Candaele Alan Embree Julio Franco Brian Giles Orel Hershiser Jeff Kent Kenny Lofton Jack McDowell Jose Mesa Charles Nagy Chad Ogea Tony Pena Eric Plunk Manny Ramirez Kevin Seitzer Paul Shuey Julian Tavarez Jim Thome Jose Vizcaino Omar Vizquel Nigel Wilson	c p lf ph-2,dh-1 p 1b-3,dh-1 ph p pr-1,1b-1,2b-1,3b-2 cf p p p p c p rf dh-3,1b-1 p p 3b 2b ss ph	4 3 4 2 3 4 1 1 4 4 1 2 2 1 1 3 4 4 3 2 4 3 4 1	16 0 15 0 0 15 1 0 8 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 17 0 0 10 12 14 1	2 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 5 0 0 3 4 6 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 2 1 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 1 0 1 1 4 0	3 0 6 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 4 0 0 0 1 2 0	.125 .000 .200 .000 .000 .133 .000 .000 .125 .167 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .375 .294 .000 .000 .300 .333 .429 .000	0 0 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 1 3 0	2 0 2 0 0 6 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 0 0 5 1 4 0	0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 0
Totals			143	35	7	0	4	20	20	.245	15	32	11

1996 Division Series Pitching Statistics
Name	W	L	G	GS	CG	S	Sh	IP	ERA	H	SO	ER	BB
Armando Benitez Scott Erickson Terry Mathews Mike Mussina Randy Myers Jesse Orosco Arthur Rhodes David Wells	2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1	0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0	3 1 3 1 3 4 2 2	0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	4.0 6.2 2.2 6.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 13.2	2.25 4.05 0.00 4.50 0.00 36.00 9.00 4.61	1 6 3 7 0 2 1 15	6 6 2 6 3 2 1 6	1 3 0 3 0 4 1 7	2 2 1 2 0 3 1 4
Totals	3	1	19	4	0	2	0	38.0	4.50	35	32	19	15
1996 Division Series Pitching Statistics
Name	W	L	G	GS	CG	S	Sh	IP	ERA	H	SO	ER	BB
Paul Assenmacher Alan Embree Orel Hershiser Jack McDowell Jose Mesa Charles Nagy Chad Ogea Eric Plunk Paul Shuey Julian Tavarez	1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0	3 3 1 1 2 2 1 3 3 2	0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	1.2 1.0 5.0 5.2 4.2 11.1 0.1 4.0 2.0 1.1	0.00 9.00 5.40 6.35 3.86 7.15 0.00 6.75 9.00 0.00	0 0 7 6 8 15 0 1 5 1	2 1 3 5 7 13 0 6 2 1	0 1 3 4 2 9 0 3 2 0	1 0 3 1 0 5 1 2 2 2
Totals	1	3	21	4	0	0	0	37.0	5.84	43	40	24	17

The umpires were intentionally late to Game 1 seventeen minutes in protest to the Roberto Alomar spitting incident which took place during the final game of the regular season.

On October 4, 1996, Judge Ludwig said from the bench in regards to the Alomar incident, "To not grant an injunction would cause irreparable harm to the ballclubs." But, he was also able to see the other side of the coin and further commented, "I agree with much ot the arguments made on behalf of the umpires. I understand their authority and dignity is at stake. These umpires are the best. In a way, it is a compliment to them to issue the restraining order."

How do you feel about this infamous incident? Will it hurt Roberto Alomar's chances at becoming a hall of fame player? Will it have no effect at all? Share your thoughts on Baseball Fever.

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