Belle Has Grand Time in This Record Sweep

Albert Belle hit a grand slam Wednesday as Cleveland beat Detroit, 9-3, at Tiger Stadium, completing the Indians’ first season sweep against the Tigers.

Jim Thome homered for the third straight game, Jeff Kent also hit a home run and Orel Hershiser (14-7) won his fourth straight decision for the Indians, who finished 12-0 against the Tigers.

Detroit became the seventh team in modern major league history to get swept in a season series. The last time it happened was 1994, when Montreal went 12-0 against San Diego.

The Indians are the fifth AL team to sweep an opponent in a season. Oakland was the last to do it, winning 12 straight from New York in 1990.

Belle’s grand slam was the 11th given up by the Tigers, breaking the one-season record of 10 set by Seattle in 1992 and matched this year by San Francisco.

Seattle 10, New York 2--Paul O’Neill, Darryl Strawberry and the slumping Yankees brawled with the Mariners after falling far behind at Seattle in suffering a three-game sweep.

Jay Buhner hit a three-run homer and Alex Rodriguez, Mark Whiten and Doug Strange also homered as Seattle gave the Yankees their first four-game losing streak this season.

New York, which once led the division by 12 games, held its four-game edge over Baltimore.

Tempers erupted in the eighth. O’Neill was upset that Tim Davis’ first pitch was high and inside, and began talking to Mariner catcher John Marzano.

Marzano then bumped O’Neill and threw a punch that missed, and both players wrestled to ground. The benches and bullpens cleared and, when it seemed like things had calmed down, Strawberry wound up in the middle of another altercation.

O’Neill and Strawberry were ejected, as were Bobby Ayala, Chris Bosio and Marzano of the Mariners. Yankee reliever Jeff Nelson hit Joey Cora with the first pitch in the bottom of the eighth, and was ejected.

Kansas City 4, Texas 3--Jose Offerman singled home Johnny Damon with two outs in the 12th inning to give the Royals their second straight extra-inning victory over the Rangers at Kansas City, Mo.

Toronto 6, Minnesota 1--Pat Hentgen (17-7) pitched a five-hitter in his fifth straight complete game and won for the 10th time in 11 starts, leading the Blue Jays past the Twins at Toronto.

Chicago 2, Milwaukee 0--Rookie James Baldwin (10-4) and two relievers combined for a six-hitter at Chicago as the White Sox won their fourth game in the last 14.

Oakland 3, Baltimore 0--Don Wengert (7-9) scattered nine hits at Baltimore for his first complete game in the majors, and the Athletics ended Mike Mussina’s six-game winning streak. Mussina fell to 17-9.