ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610070156
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CLEVELAND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Roberto Alomar gave Cleveland another reason to hate him and Baltimore.
Alomar, in a batting slump and under fire for spitting at an umpire, homered in the 12th inning Saturday as the Baltimore Orioles advanced to the American League Championship Series with a 4-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
The Orioles, in the postseason for the first time since 1983, eliminated Cleveland 3-1 despite striking out a playoff record 23 times. Baltimore, the AL's wild-card team, will face the New York Yankees in the ALCS beginning Tuesday night.
Alomar also homered at Toronto last week to win the game that clinched the wild card for Baltimore.
``My main thing is to focus on the game,'' Alomar said. ``You have to concentrate and you have to continue just to play the game. Today I didn't let the fans bother me.''
The Indians, who lost to Atlanta in the World Series last year and led the majors with 99 victories this season, were trying to become the fifth team to come back from a 2-0 deficit in a five-game playoff series.
For Cleveland fans, losing to Baltimore was particularly distasteful in light of their beloved Browns defecting to that city after last season.
``We got outplayed,'' Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove said, ``which is usually what happens when you lose.''
Alomar, who tied the game in the ninth with a two-out RBI single, hit a 1-1 pitch from loser Jose Mesa over the wall in right-center. Alomar, booed relentlessly by the Jacobs Field crowd, raised his fist in the air as he rounded first and smiled widely as he came home from third.
Alomar's five-game suspension for spitting at umpire John Hirschbeck set off a week-long controversy in the playoffs. Umpires had threatened to strike because the suspension didn't apply to the postseason. One day after the spitting incident in Toronto, Alomar hit a 10th-inning homer that clinched the Orioles a playoff spot.
``The thing that happened in Toronto really hurt him a great deal,'' Orioles manager Davey Johnson said. ``He played his career there and got booed there. Yet when we needed the big hit, he got the homer to win it. Today, you almost knew the script was already written.''
Mesa, normally used for one inning to close games, was starting his fourth inning when Alomar homered to end the Indians' season. Alomar was 3-for-15 in the series before his game-tying single in the ninth off Mesa.
The Indians got the winning run to third with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Jesse Orosco struck out Kenny Lofton to send the game into extra innings.
Armando Benitez, who gave up a grand slam to Albert Belle in the Indians' 9-4 win on Friday, struck out four in two hitless innings for the win. Randy Myers pitched the 12th for the save.
Cleveland starter Charles Nagy struck out 12 in six innings before turning it over to Cleveland's bullpen. The right-hander, working on three days rest after losing Game 1, threw 110 pitches and tied a career high for strikeouts.
Alan Embree struck out Brady Anderson to open the seventh, and Paul Assenmacher fanned Alomar and Rafael Palmeiro to get through the inning. Eric Plunk pitched the eighth.
When Mesa struck out Pete Incaviglia leading off the ninth, Indians' pitchers owned the record for strikeouts in a postseason. They surpassed the 17 strikeouts by Bob Gibson of St. Louis against the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series.
Before pinch-hitter B.J. Surhoff singled with one out in the ninth, Cleveland pitchers had recorded 18 of the previous 22 outs on strikeouts.
Trailing 3-2, the Orioles tied it in the ninth. After Surhoff singled, Anderson blooped a single to center that went off diving center fielder Lofton's glove. One out later, Alomar dropped an RBI single into left-center, scoring pinch-runner Manny Alexander.
Cleveland had taken a 3-2 lead on Omar Vizquel's RBI single in the fifth.
Nagy, 17-5 during the regular season, gave up back-to-back homers to Palmeiro and Bobby Bonilla in the second as the Orioles took a 2-0 lead. But Nagy, who struck out just one in 5 1/3 innings of Game 1, settled down and struck out the side. Nagy, who had seven strikeouts through four innings, gave up two runs and six hits with two walks.
David Wells came in 9-3 with a 3.24 ERA lifetime against Cleveland, including the victory over Nagy in the first game of this series.
Wells retired seven straight after Manny Ramirez's second-inning double. Julio Franco broke the string with a single in the fourth, and Ramirez followed with another double. Sandy Alomar, who entered the game 1-for-12 in the series, came through with a two-run single to tie the game.
Wells gave up seven hits and three runs in seven innings. see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Baltimore batter Roberto Alomar and his brother,by CNBCleveland catcher Sandy Alomar, watch the game-winning home run in
the 12th inning that gave the Orioles a 4-3 victory. color KEYWORDS: BASEBALL