AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Belle Hits Crescendo With 50th Home Run

Albert Belle thought 30 home runs in a short season would have been great. And 40 would have been unbelievable. But 50?

“If you’d told me I was going to hit 50 home runs, I don’t know what I would have told you. I probably would have laughed at you,” Belle said Saturday after he became the 12th player in major league history to reach that milestone.

Belle’s sixth-inning blast tied the score, 2-2, and Carlos Baerga’s RBI single in the 10th won it as the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2, at Cleveland.

The Indians (99-44) won in their final at-bat for the 27th time this year.

“It’s been a Cinderella, storybook season,” said Belle, who rarely speaks with reporters. “This is icing on the cake. In 1991, it seemed like everything we did was wrong. We got our butts kicked. But everything has changed. To win 100 games would probably exceed our goals.”

Belle matched Babe Ruth’s record with 17 September home runs, and he extended his major league mark for homers in a two-month span to 31.

He is the first to hit 50 in a season since Detroit’s Cecil Fielder hit 51 in 1990.

Ruth homered 17 times in September 1927, the year he set a record for a 154-game season with 60 home runs.

“If people don’t vote for Albert for MVP, then they have an agenda of their own,” Indian Manager Mike Hargrove said. “I don’t see anybody else who should even come close to Albert. [Boston’s] Mo Vaughn is a great guy. I don’t think his year is anywhere near the magnitude of Albert’s.”

Belle suggested that teammate Jose Mesa, with 46 saves, might be the MVP, although Belle still hopes to win the award.

“I’m not really considered a media darling, so that may not help,” Belle said. “But if you look at the statistics and our team winning percentage, I have an advantage.”

In other games: Right fielder Troy O’Leary had three hits and two RBIs as the Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-1, at Milwaukee. Ben McDonald, Jimmy Haynes and Jesse Orosco teamed to pitch the Baltimore Orioles’ fourth consecutive shutout and Brady Anderson hit his first grand slam in a 12-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Baltimore.