STILL ALIVE; ORIOLES WIN, GO BACK HOME : BALTIMORE 4, CLEVELAND 2.

Byline: Associated Press 

The wind brought down one flag and the Baltimore Orioles stopped the Cleveland Indians from raising another.

Scott Kamieniecki and Jimmy Key combined to pitch shutout ball over eight innings, and Geronimo Berroa hit a two-run single as the Orioles avoided an early offseason Monday night with a 4-2 victory over the Indians in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series. They cut Cleveland's series lead to 3-2.

``We're not done yet,'' Kamieniecki said. ``Until you deep-six us, we're going to come out playing.''

Eric Davis, whose comeback from colon-cancer surgery has given the Orioles an emotional lift, connected for a pinch-hit homer off Paul Assenmacher in a two-run ninth that also included an RBI single by Cal Ripken.

Compared to two straight nerve-racking weekend games, Game 5 seemed almost a snoozer. The Jacobs Field crowd of 45,068, which screamed itself hoarse during Cleveland's stunning wins on Saturday and Sunday, was subdued.

That is until the ninth, when trailing 4-0, the Indians finally stirred with some more October drama.

David Justice singled off Randy Myers leading off and Matt Williams followed with an RBI double. Sandy Alomar flied out to right and Tony Fernandez hit another RBI double that brought the potential tying run to the plate.

Marquis Grissom reached on an infield single - Myers knocked down a comebacker but couldn't come up with the ball - and Bip Roberts struck out as Grissom stole second.

With the crowd shaking the ballpark, Myers finally ended it with an assist from Roberto Alomar. Omar Vizquel hit a grounder up the middle that the second baseman backhanded, and Alomar made an off-balance throw that beat the speedy Vizquel by a step.

``This is nothing to worry about,'' Vizquel said. ``We've still got momentum on our side. We're still up 3-2. I think the expectations tonight were too high. I don't think anyone wanted to go back to Baltimore. I think everyone wanted to win too much.''

Fans had come ready to celebrate the Indians' second trip to the World Series in three years, but the Orioles wouldn't cooperate. And there was an ominous moment early on when winds whipped the ballpark's giant American flag around its pole and tore it.

The flag was lowered after the third inning, and the Orioles' victory assured there wouldn't be any AL pennant waving over Cleveland for at least another couple of days.

Cleveland, which has three one-run wins in this series, was trying to become the first team in league-championship-series history to lose Game 1 and win four straight.

After an off-day, the best-of-seven series will resume Wednesday afternoon at Camden Yards with Cleveland's Charles Nagy facing Mike Mussina, who struck out an ALCS-record 15 in Game 3 and will now pitch in the twilight.

``I expect him to go out there and have a very good ballgame,'' Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove said. ``I haven't seen him throw a bad one yet this year.''

Kamieniecki, who relieved Key in Game 2, was making his first start since Sept. 24. The right-hander gave Baltimore manager Davey Johnson everything he could have hoped by limiting the Indians to four hits in five innings with one walk and four strikeouts.

But he was forced to leave with elbow stiffness after the fifth, and Key came on in relief for the first time since Oct. 24, 1992, when he won the deciding Game 6 of the World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Key pitched three scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Baltimore's bullpen finally closed out a win after going 0-3 with a 3.14 ERA in the first four games.

``I knew I'd get a stellar performance out of Kamieniecki,'' Johnson said, ``and I got a bonus with Jimmy Key.''

Cleveland, which stranded two runners in both the first and third innings, got runners to second and third with two outs in the fourth, but Kamieniecki jumped to snare Grissom's bouncer through the middle and threw him out.

Kamieniecki pitched inside to Manny Ramirez twice in the first inning before hitting the Cleveland right field on the upper left arm. Ramirez never dropped his bat as he shouted at Kamieniecki and was escorted to first base by plate umpire Larry McCoy.

``I don't know why he would think I would try to hit him,'' Kamieniecki said. ``It kind of got me ticked off, him thinking I was trying to hit him.''

Ogea allowed six hits. The Indians haven't scored a run for him in 19-1/3 innings during the playoffs.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--color) Eric Davis, whose fight with cancer has inspired the Orioles, gave them another lift with a ninth-inning home run.

(2--color) Cleveland's Manny Ramirez trades long-distance insults with Baltimore pitcher Scott Kamieniecki after being hit in the first inning.

Associated Press