Alomar’s Streak Ends at 30 in Indian Loss

Sandy Alomar sounded relieved that his 30-game hitting streak ended Thursday night.

“It’s a load off my back,” the Cleveland catcher said after going zero for four in the Indians’ 8-2 loss to the Twins at Minneapolis. “I swung at a lot of bad pitches tonight.”

Alomar fell one game short of matching the longest hitting streak in Indian history. Nap Lajoie hit in 31 consecutive games in 1906.

“I felt anxious tonight,” said Alomar, MVP of the All-Star game Tuesday night at Cleveland. “I wanted to get it early.”

Brad Radke (11-5) won his seventh consecutive start. He struck out Alomar in the second inning and again in the fourth, and retired him on a grounder in the seventh.

“He went out there swinging and I think he wanted to get it over with,” Radke said. “I just wanted to throw strikes. I didn’t want to walk him.”

Alomar was not about to walk.

“His ball was really moving tonight, give him credit” Alomar said. “I was swinging at some bad pitches, high balls. I was swinging at everything.”

In the ninth inning against Twins reliever Greg Swindell, Alomar popped up to third baseman Denny Hocking just to the left of the pitcher’s mound.

Boston 8, Toronto 7--Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn and Wilfredo Cordero all returned to Fenway Park. But the Red Sox staged the biggest comeback of all, rallying from 5-1 and 7-6 deficits to beat the Blue Jays in 11 innings on Nomar Garciaparra’s bases-loaded walk.

Joe Carter had a grand slam, then added an run-scoring double in the ninth inning to tie the score at 6. In the 10th, Carlos Garcia lined one off Vaughn’s glove at first base and Shawn Green raced around from second to beat the tag and give Toronto a 7-6 lead.

Garcia also made a good catch of Cordero’s line drive to end a Red Sox threat in the eighth. It was his first at-bat in Boston since he was charged with assaulting and threatening to kill his wife, and he was roundly booed.

The game was a sideshow to a swirl of pregame controversy, headlined by Cordero--and by Clemens’ first visit to Fenway since he left Boston after 13 years to sign a three-year, $24.75 million contract with Toronto. He is scheduled to pitch Saturday.

Vaughn, who missed the previous 20 games with torn cartilage in his left knee, hit a two-run homer.

Seattle 12, Texas 9--Joey Cora, back from his first All-Star appearance, hit a three-run homer that highlighted a seven-run fifth inning and gave the Mariners a victory at Seattle.

Juan Gonzalez hit his 21st homer and drove in five runs for Texas. He has seven home runs and 20 RBIs in his last 11 games.

Jay Buhner tripled and doubled twice as the Mariners beat Texas for the fifth consecutive game.

Cora and Alex Rodriguez each had four of the Mariners’ 18 hits. Seattle had eight extra-base hits, including two doubles by Rodriguez.

Chicago 6, Kansas City 3--Tony Muser lost in his managerial debut and the Royals dropped their ninth consecutive game with a loss at Kansas City.

Frank Thomas and Ray Durham each drove in three runs for the White Sox. Durham homered, doubled and scored a career-high four runs.

Muser, the former Chicago Cubs hitting coach, was hired Wednesday to replace Bob Boone.

AL Notes

David Justice, placed on the disabled list June 24 because of a hyper-extended left elbow, was activated Thursday by the Cleveland Indians.

To make room on the roster, the Indians optioned infielder Damian Jackson to triple-A Buffalo.

In an effort to improve their relief pitching, the Mariners claimed right-hander Tim Scott on waivers from the Colorado Rockies.

The Royals recalled catcher Mike Sweeney and outfielder Rod Myers from triple-A Omaha and activated outfielder Bip Roberts from the disabled list.

The Royals also optioned catcher Sal Fasano to Omaha, reinstated pitcher Jose Santiago from the 15-day disabled list, and placed outfielder Jermaine Dye and second baseman Jose Offerman on the 15-day disabled list.

Dwight Lowry, a minor league manager for the Detroit Tigers and a member of their 1984 World Series championship team, died Thursday morning after collapsing outside his home in Jamestown, N.Y.