Alomar Shows Some Spit and Polish

He spit in an umpire’s face, received a five-game suspension, triggered a threatened umpire boycott, instigated a federal case, was ridiculed, badgered, booed and hounded.

Some week, huh?

Roberto Alomar topped it off with the game- and American League division playoff series-winning home run in the 12th inning to give the Baltimore Orioles a 4-3 victory over Cleveland in Game 4 Saturday at Jacobs Field.

The Orioles, the first wild-card team to reach a league championship series, face the New York Yankees for the American League pennant starting Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.

Cleveland won 99 games during the regular season and was a heavy favorite in this series, but ultimately couldn’t handle the Orioles’ power hitters and fell three games to one.

Baltimore, which set a major league home run record with 257 during the regular season, hit nine more in the series.

“I think we stunned a lot of people in the world,” Baltimore reliever Jesse Orosco said.

In the end, it didn’t matter that the Orioles struck out a postseason-record 23 times Saturday. They had Alomar at the plate when it counted, and he delivered.

For a week, Alomar seemed to represent everything that was wrong with baseball. It was a tough burden and the strain began to show. He went into Game 4 batting .182 (two for 11), well off his team-leading average of .328 during the regular season.

But with the Orioles down, 3-2, and facing Cleveland closer Jose Mesa with two out in the ninth inning, Alomar slapped a one-and-two pitch into center field to score pinch-runner Manny Alexander with the tying run.

Cleveland shortstop Omar Vizquel would later describe Alomar’s run-scoring single as a “knife into the heart.”

There was more to come.

With Baltimore’s bullpen--including Orosco, who rebounded from a miserable two-thirds of an inning in Friday’s loss--holding the Indians in check, the game moved to the 12th.

Alomar led off against Mesa, who was working his season-high fourth inning. When Mesa delivered a one-one pitch, Alomar connected, sending the ball into the second row of the right-center field bleachers.

The crowds at Jacobs Field booed him without mercy during Games 3 and 4, but just then the silence was deafening.

“He had a rough week, but he won the ballgame,” said Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar, Roberto’s older brother. “He’s my brother and with all the things that happened with this incident, I felt kind of sorry for him.”

Others marveled that Alomar was able to focus on the games after a week of tumult that began when he spit in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck Sept. 27 at Toronto.

“He’s just a phenomenal player,” first baseman Rafael Palmeiro said. “The fans were on him hard. Every move he made he got booed.”

Said shortstop Cal Ripken Jr.: “Robbie’s a special part of this club. He’s gotten big hits for us all year. I think some of the life, some of the joy was pulled out of him [this week]. As the game went on you could see some of the joy come back to him.”

Alomar ducked questions about the spitting incident all week, but finally opened up at game’s end.

“I’ve been going through a tough time,” he said. “[Spitting at Hirschbeck] was a mistake on my part. Human beings make mistakes. I apologized to the umpire, his family, and all of baseball. It’s time to move on.”

In the ninth, Alomar battled Mesa and wound up getting the game-tying hit by throwing his bat at the ball. With two on and two out it was a defensive reaction.

“I’m not trying to go the other way [hitting to left field],” he said. “You can’t with Mesa. He throws too hard.”

Of the home run, Alomar said: “He threw it where I could hit it. There’s no way I was thinking home run. I went out there just trying to get a hit.”

This wasn’t the first time Alomar had produced a clutch home run in a playoff game. He hit a game-tying homer against Dennis Eckersley, helping Toronto defeat Oakland, 7-6, in 11 innings in Game 4 of the 1992 American League championship series.

“It’s not the first time he was a hero in postseason,” right fielder Bobby Bonilla said. “The guy can play. Let’s not act surprised.”

Palmeiro and Bonilla hit consecutive solo homers to give the Orioles a 2-0 lead in the second. The Indians rallied to tie in the fourth on Sandy Alomar’s two-run single, then took the lead on Vizquel’s run-scoring single in the fifth.

But Alomar worked his late-inning magic and the Indians’ reign as AL champs is history.

“Now we have to move on,” Alomar said. “I’m real happy I came here and helped my team to win.”

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Take a Whiff

The Cleveland Indians set a record for most team strikeouits in a playoff game. A look at theall-time list, with number, pitchers and oppoent:

* 23--Cleveland (Charles Nagy 12; Alan Embree 1; Paul Assenmacher 2; Eric Plunk 2; Jose Mesa 6) vs. Baltimore, Baltimore 4-3, 12 innings, Oct. 5, 1996.

* 15--Atlanta (John Smoltz 10; Mark Wohlers 5) vs. Philadelphia, Philadelphia 2-1, Oct. 10, 1993.

* 15--Houston (Nolan Ryan 12; Charlie Kerfeld 3) vs. New York, New York 2-1, 12 innings, Oct. 14, 1986.

* 15--Pittsburgh (John Candelaria 14; Pedro Borbon 1) vs. Cincinnati, Cincinnati 5-3, 10 innings, Oct. 7, 1975.

* 14--Baltimore (Mike Boddicker 14) vs. Chicago, Baltimore 4-0, Oct. 6, 1983.

* 14--Detroit (Joe Coleman 14) vs. Oakland, Detroit 3-0, Oct. 10, 1972.