Indians’ Belle Puts Angels in Wringer : Baseball: Spirits remain high despite outfielder’s grand slam in ninth off Lee Smith.

Once the shock of Indian outfielder Albert Belle’s ninth-inning, game-winning grand slam off reliever Lee Smith wore off Tuesday night, the Angels left Jacobs Field feeling pretty good about themselves.

No, they didn’t sweep two games from the Indians, the best team in baseball, even though they came within inches of accomplishing that feat Tuesday night.

The Angels took a two-run lead into the ninth and had their top reliever on the mound when Cleveland loaded the bases on a bad-hop single, a line-drive single off the glove of leaping shortstop Gary DiSarcina and a walk.

Belle, with a sellout crowd of 41,763 on its feet, then smashed a 1-2 pitch over the center-field fence to give the Indians a 7-5 victory, their 14th in their final at-bat this season.

But when ears finally stopped ringing in the Angel clubhouse, the feeling of failure dissolved into a sense of accomplishment. The Angels had come to baseball’s mecca, whipped the Indians, 8-3, on Monday, and hung right with them on Tuesday.

“The media makes them out to be unbeatable,” said designated hitter Chili Davis, who was hitless in his first game after coming off the disabled list Tuesday. “They’re a good team, but so are we. We played two good games here, and we match up pretty well against them.

“We’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘You guys have played well but you haven’t played Cleveland yet.’ That’s unfair to us. We’re not saying we’re better than Cleveland--they’re awesome. But to all the people who doubt us, who think we’re a fluke, shut up. We can play.”

The Angels have had their share of dramatic victories, winning eight games this season in their final at-bat, but they fell victim to the masters of the miraculous Tuesday.

Cleveland has perfected the art of the steal, swiping victory when defeat seems certain. They have 25 come-from-behind victories. Six times they have won with a home run in their final at-bat.

“How many times have we come back?” said Angel third baseman Tony Phillips, who homered in the third inning for a 1-0 lead. “Sooner or later it’s going to happen to you. But it’s going to happen to those guys too.

“Has [Indian reliever Jose] Mesa blown a save yet? No? It’s going to happen. The law of averages will catch up to them, hopefully in Anaheim [where Cleveland plays a three-game series] next week. I’m looking forward to doing the same thing against them.”

The Angels seemed headed for the sweep when Jim Edmonds hit a two-run homer, his 17th of the season, in the fifth to push the lead to 3-0, and Mark Langston kept the Indian offense in check through four innings.

Cleveland bunched five singles off Langston in the fifth to tie the game at 3, but rookie Garret Anderson’s two-run homer to right--his fourth homer in the past five games--put the Angels back up, 5-3, in the sixth.

Then came the ninth. Pinch-hitter Wayne Kirby opened with a grounder to first. As J.T. Snow dove, the ball caromed off the bag and Snow’s chest and dribbled into foul territory for a single.

Kirby stole second as pinch-hitter Jim Thome struck out, but Omar Vizquel lined a ball to short that DiSarcina was able to get his glove on but not control. What was almost a spectacular catch became another single.

After Carlos Baerga walked, Smith got ahead of Belle, 0-2, then just missed the outside corner with a pitch the cleanup hitter did not swing at.

“That’s why they call it a game of inches sometimes,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said.

Then Belle launched a hanging slider about 425 feet to center for his 16th homer of the season and the second game-winning, ninth-inning grand slam Smith has allowed. Oakland’s Mark McGwire beat the Angels, 8-5, with a similar shot on June 30.

“I was trying to throw something in the dirt, out of the strike zone, but that’s what happens when you hang sliders,” said Smith, who has three blown saves.