Order returned to the Orioles' universe last night at Camden Yards. Though the team's season no longer offers gravity, it does have its own laws of nature.
Manager Ray Miller will insist the Orioles' write-off from playoff contention is a media fabrication.
Albert Belle, who feeds on fan disapproval, receives his fill.
And Mike Mussina (12-4) can make a 38-51 team resemble its $84 million pay scale. Not only does he suffocate opponents, he has the power to make his offense an unstoppable force.
The Orioles got behind Mussina last night to crush the Montreal Expos, 9-4, before an announced crowd of 41,929. The victory, which also provided two lifetime achievement awards for designated hitter Harold Baines, was never in doubt as the team pushed its win streak to four.
The Orioles might be moribund within the American League East, but they are 9-5 against the National League, the best interleague record within their league.
Mussina, appearing at Camden Yards for only the second time since May 23, reminded locals what they've been missing.
Coming into the game, Mussina had either won, pitched a complete game or had not allowed an earned run in eight of his previous nine starts. If not for a wobbly fifth inning and Miller's itchy trigger finger, he would have hit the trifecta last night.
Baines, at $1.5 million baseball's best offensive bargain this season, added weight to his Hall of Fame credentials by tying and establishing records for home runs and hits by a designated hitter. His four-hit night included a fifth-inning home run, the game's first run and two RBI.
Baines stacked another piece of history atop his season when the 40-year-old All-Star led off the fifth inning with a home run, his 20th. The opposite-field blast was also the 368th of his career and his 219th as a designated hitter, tying him with Don Baylor for the all-time lead.
An inning later, Baines' single would allow him to pass Hal McRae for most career hits (1,556) by a designated hitter. Afterward, Baines cradled two balls, keepsakes to be reflected upon some other time.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't notice. But after tonight you turn the page and play the next game. You're more concerned about wins and losses, not individual stuff," said Baines.
Baines and Mussina are two of several reasons that this season will not be a total loss. Mussina is on pace for his first 20-win season while continuing to lower his ERA. He has 26 strikeouts in three interleague starts covering 21 innings.
Before being removed after 84 pitches and seven innings, he struck out 10 against one walk. In his last eight starts, he has 57 strikeouts against nine walks, a Greg Maddux-like ratio without Maddux's contemporary ERA.
For his fourth straight start, Mussina received at least eight runs of support as the Orioles piled on for 17 hits. Mussina, blessed with two equally effective curveballs, is among the elite who does not have a complement in the foreign league.
"Most of the people like that are in this league," said Expos manager Felipe Alou. "Guys with a big breaking ball -- we don't have too many of those in our league. The league doesn't make the pitcher. It's the other way around: the pitcher makes the league."
"The guys in this league have seen me for 20-25 career at-bats," said Mussina. "I may still be getting them out, but they're getting the ball in play. You really have to make solid pitches. When somebody hasn't seen you, you can get away with a mistake. They might lock up on a hanging breaking ball because they haven't seen you. If you make good pitches, no sweat."
The scope of Mussina's splendid season is understated for several reasons.
He's pitching on a last-place team during a season in which the Cy Young Award has already been ceded to Boston Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez.
Three times Mussina has been undercut by his bullpen and an additional three wins would have him on the same 15-win platform as Martinez, albeit in another strikeout galaxy.
Though fourth in the league in run support, he has twice lost when surrendering two runs. Six times the Orioles have scored three runs or fewer in a Mussina start.
If National League stars Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were baffled by Mussina's five-pitch assortment and dual curveballs during Tuesday's All-Star Game, imagine the helplessness of the game's least productive lineup.
The Expos were held to one hit and one ball out of the infield through four innings. Mussina struck out six through three innings, including the side in the second.
Mussina may have piggybacked his offense in April when he was 3-1 despite a 5.90 ERA, but recovered for monthly ERAs of 3.28 in May and 2.86 in June. He has failed to clear at least seven innings in only three of his last 15 starts and walked more than two only twice in that span.
The 33-53 Expos averted a shutout in the fifth inning, but still left unsatisfied. Brad Fullmer's leadoff single, a walk to Shane Andrews and Chris Widger's single that went beneath Mussina's leg gave Montreal a run before its first out.
Mussina then stiffened, keeping Mike Mordecai, Terry Jones and James Mouton in the infield to avoid further damage.
"We don't see as many guys in the National League who throw as hard as he does, with that good curveball going along with it," said Expos catcher Widger. "Since the last time I saw him, he's throwing the slider a lot more, which gives him two quality breaking balls.
"You can't just sit fastball and then look curveball. Plus, he's got a great change-up to get lefties. He's just a complete pitcher."
One night after Brady Anderson and Belle ripped apart the Expos, the Orioles produced a more even attack against rookie starter Dan Smith (1-4) and his backing.
Able to score seven runs in the first four innings Thursday, they grabbed a 4-0 lead at the same juncture last night.
Baines was involved in three of the Orioles' first four rallies. He singled to lead off the second inning, advanced to third on Will Clark's hit, then scored easily on rookie second baseman Jerry Hairston's safety squeeze shoved toward first base.
Despite back-to-back walks that loaded the bases with one out, the Orioles failed to blow open the game when Anderson and Mike Bordick popped out.
"I think he's always made adjustments," Miller said of Baines. "He's one of the smartest, most studious hitters in baseball. He's always studying film. We saw a new pitcher today and I didn't see him the first hour I was in here. I didn't have to ask because I knew he was in there studying."
The Orioles opened a 2-0 lead in the third inning when Baines singled home Belle. An inning later against reliever Bobby Ayala, Bordick atoned for his earlier failure by tripling home Charles Johnson, then scored on B.J. Surhoff's single for a four-run lead.
Orioles tonight
Opponent: Montreal Expos
Site: Oriole Park
Time: 7: 05
TV/Radio: Ch. 13/WBAL (1090 AM)
Starters: Expos' Dustin Hermanson (3-7, 5.48) vs. Orioles' Scott Erickson (4-8, 6.06)
Tickets: 1,500 remain