DATE: Monday, October 6, 1997               TAG: 9710060171

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C9   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro 

DATELINE: BALTIMORE                         LENGTH:   65 lines

MUSSINA IS MAKING THE MOST OF OCTOBERFEST WITH THE ORIOLES

For the Orioles in October, Mike Mussina has been more than a gritty, dominating pitcher. He's been the Promisekeeper.

Faithful, reliable, a rock of stability. Mussina was all that while blowing away the potent Seattle Mariners and any lingering doubt about his ability to thrive in the big game.

Mussina has won the two biggest in baseball's 1997 postseason so far, slaying Randy Johnson twice, leaving the tall Seattle lefthander muttering into that odd little growth of hair located just below his bottom lip.

``I thought,'' Johnson said Sunday night, following the Orioles 3-1 Divisional Series clinching victory, ``I pitched my butt off.''

He had. Eight innings, 13 strikeouts, seven hits, which included two solo home runs. But the best lefthander in baseball couldn't outpitch Mussina or beat the Orioles, his personal nemesis.

Five times this season Johnson has started against the Orioles. Five times Seattle slouched away losers. Five losses is not a fluke; it's a pattern.

``I went out there and probably pitched as good a game as I did all year,'' said Johnson. ``Unfortunately, Mike pitched a much better game.''

In the rarified air breathed by these two, much better means two hits over seven innings. Mussina did not give up a hit after the second, before manager Davey Johnson entrusted the final six outs to Armando Benitez and Randy Myers.

Still, Mussina says he never felt like his performance was the primary focus of the game.

``When you pitch versus Randy, everyone is watching him,'' he said. ``People come to watch him pitch. I do what I've always done.''

Always? Somewhere along the line, conventional wisdom held that Mussina was prone to shrinking in big games. How do these stories get started, anyway? How many big games could Mussina have pitched? Until last year, Mussina's Orioles were strangers to Octoberfest.

``I think,'' said Davey Johnson, ``everybody can put to rest that Mike can't pitch in a big game.''

What, someone asked Mussina, does the term ``big-game pitcher'' mean?

``It means nothing to me,'' he said.

End of discussion. But beating Johnson twice in this series (three times for the season) should mark the beginning of a new chapter in Mussina's career. In this one, he's recognized for what he truly is: One of the game's most resilient starters.

``I tell ya,'' said Seattle manager Lou Piniella, ``the more I see him pitch, the more I'm impressed with him. I don't look at it as Randy got beat today. We just didn't hit the ball.''

And the Orioles hit the ball just enough. As expected, Johnson loaded his lineup with righthanded bats, and was rewarded in the first inning when Jayvee second baseman Jeff Reboulet turned on a 97-mph fastball and dumped it into the leftfield seats.

Reboulet has hit five home runs this season. Two have come against Johnson.

What did Reboulet's blast say for Davey Johnson's lineup juggling.

``Hopefully,'' said the second baseman, ``it made him look really smart.''

Like Mussina, the Birds' manager is on a roll.

Shrugged the Orioles' resident (for the time being) genius, ``Certain years, strange things happen.''

Strange is how Seattle felt as it packed up its hopes. The disappointment felt by the Mariners was mixed with a healthy dose of disbelief.

Said Seattle rightfielder Jay Buhner: ``I didn't think this series would come down to beating (Johnson) twice. I never thought I'd see something like that.''

Or, perhaps, something like Mussina.

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