It’s October 11, 1996, and Mike Mussina was looking every bit of the O’s ace for seven innings. With two outs and nobody on base in the eighth, it looked like Moose was about to get the home team into the ninth up 2-1. But in a span of four batters, it all fell apart.

Derek Jeter doubled. Bernie Williams singled him home to tie the game. Tino Martinez doubled, and a horrific throwing error by Todd Zeile let Williams score to give the Yankees the lead. And Cecil Fielder blasted a two-run homer to cap it off. Before O’s manager Davey Johnson could get to the bullpen, the score was suddenly 5-2, and New York would go on to win by the same score. They now lead the best-of-seven ALCS 2-1.

You can watch it here, if you dare.

“Four outs away, and the Orioles fell apart in seven pitches,” the Sun’s Ken Rosenthal started his column. “Four outs away, and just like that, the New York Yankees resumed their remarkable dominance this season at Camden Yards. It’s not a home field, it’s a haunted house.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1C, October 12, 1996)

Mussina could barely believe how quickly it all came crashing down.

“For seven innings, it was pretty much the way you would want to write it up if you could,” Mussina said in John Eisenberg’s column. “It was really fun out there. It’s a 2-1 game. It’s in the playoffs. It’s in your home park. It was really fun out there.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1C, October 12, 1996)

Until it wasn’t.

Let the second guessing begin. As the Sun’s Buster Olney points out, Mussina’s batting-average-against jumps from .217 in pitches 76-90 all the way up to .344 in pitches 106-120. Tonight, the Yankees batted 1.000 on those pitches.

“He was throwing the ball great,” said Johnson. “It was a terrible pitch to Fielder,” he added later.

Almost as soon as Fielder touched the plate, Johnson was out of the dugout to go to the bullpen, but it was too late. A visibly frustrated Mussina headed off the mound, forced to think about what might have been.

“It was one of my best games,” he said. “I’m just disappointed that I didn’t finish it.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 8C, October 12, 1996)

The reason why the game was still in the balance despite Moose’s dominant start was that the O’s could do hardly anything off Yankees starter Jimmy Key. Zeile hit a two-run homer in the first inning to give the O’s a lead, but then the Birds never got another hit after the second inning.

“That’s Jimmy Key,” said O’s catcher Chris Hoiles. “It just seems like everything was just out of reach, or you were just behind or just ahead.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 6C, October 12, 1996)

After losing a game with their most experienced pitcher on the mound, the O’s will now turn to rookie Rocky Coppinger in the franchise’s most important game in 13 years. It is Coppinger’s biggest game since high school.

“I was on a team that went to the [Texas] state tournament,” he told the Sun’s Jason LaCanfora and Roch Kubatko. “And I was going to pitch the next night in the state tournament in front of a packed house where the University of Texas plays. So, it’s been awhile.”

And just out of curiosity, how did that game go?

“We got 10-run ruled,” he continued. “It was the first time in my life we got 10-run-ruled, and we also got no-hit. It’s a funny story.”

Oh yes, that is a funny story…

Here’s the box score with the not-so-lovely totals.

American League Championship Series — Game 4
Camden Yards
Baltimore
7:37 p.m.

Starting Pitchers
NYY – LHP Kenny Rogers (12-8, 4.68 ERA)
BAL – RHP Rocky Coppinger (10-6, 5.18 ERA)

We had nearly a three-way tie at the top of the box office this weekend as three films pulled in just over $10 million. But the winner was the new Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer classic, “The Ghost in the Darkness,” which is based on the true story of the Tsavo Man Eater lions. The two lions heroically ate upwards of 35 railroad workers in Kenya in 1898. Douglas and Kilmer are hunting the film. Fun fact, the Tsavo Man Eaters are on permanent display in the Field Museum in Chicago. That film just barely beat out reigning box office champ “First Wives Club” and another new film, “The Long Kiss Goodnight,” starring Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson. Here’s the lion movie:

Yankees fans spent big bucks to invade Camden Yards for Game 3 of the ALCS, according to a front-page Sun piece by Michael Dresser.

“As usual with every Baltimore home game against the Yankees, one-third of the crowd is Yankees fans,” said ticket broker Danny Matta.

Dresser then becomes the mouthpiece of the revolution:

Holy shit, Dress.

“Orioles season ticket holders” are cashing in and Yankees fans are spending upwards of $100 on tickets that have a face value of $35 to $45.

So ya, what Dress said. Lenin warned us about the Yankees taking over Camden Yards. Even to this day, going to see the Yankees in Baltimore is an annoying experience.

Welcome to a recurring segment where I find fun things in today’s (in 1996) Baltimore Sun!

Huge get for Bibelot.