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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
DETROIT (AP) -- With Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez gone from
Cleveland, Jim Thome became the Indians' career leader in home runs.
|  | | By game's end, Jim Thome had more home runs for Cleveland than anyone in team history. |
Thome hit his 243rd career homer and Roberto Alomar hit a
tiebreaking two-run shot in the seventh inning to lead the Indians
to a 6-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.
"It feels great -- it is a great honor," Thome said after
passing Belle. "There's a lot of good guys on that list -- Albert,
Manny, on down the line. It means more that I did it with the
Indians and was here that long."
The Indians were without manager Charlie Manuel, who was serving
the first of a two-game suspension for returning to the field after
being ejected from a game last week.
"I just do what they tell me -- if I broke a rule, I guess I
deserve this," Manuel said. "There wasn't much action down here -- they brought me some balls to sign and I just watched it on TV."
The victory snapped Cleveland's three-game losing streak, and gave
the Tigers their sixth defeat in seven games.
With the score tied at 4, Heath Murray (0-2) walked Omar Vizquel
to lead off the seventh before Alomar's second homer of the season
gave Cleveland the lead.
"That walk just killed us. You have to make Omar hit the ball,
and if he hits it out, you just tip your cap," Tigers manager Phil
Garner said. "We keep walking guys who have no chance of hitting
the ball out of this park. You have to take better advantage of
your park."
Ricardo Rincon, Paul Shuey, Steve Karsay and Bob Wickman
combined on four innings of one-hit relief. Shuey (4-1) got four
outs for the victory and Wickman pitched the ninth for 10 saves.
"We've been worked a lot lately, but we're pitching pretty
well," Karsay said. "It was nice to get Rincon back to chew up
some innings and get the game to us."
Cleveland starter Dave Burba failed to become the American League's first eight-game winner, allowing four runs, eight hits and four walks in
five innings.
"I had to throw a lot of breaking stuff tonight," Burba said.
"I just couldn't locate my fastball at all."
Alomar tripled off Victor Santos in the first inning and scored
on Thome's double.
The Tigers got onto the board with a pair of runs in the third.
Roger Cedeno led off with a triple, Jose Macias followed with an
run-scoring single and Tony Clark added a run-scoring double.
Santos couldn't hold the lead, though, as Thome and Marty
Cordova led off the fourth with back-to-back homers. Thome's homer
was an opposite-field shot to Comerica's spacious left field.
"That's pretty impressive," Detroit's Dean Palmer said.
"There aren't many right-handers who can hit one out to left here,
and he's done it more than once as a lefty. He's just really
strong."
Detroit tied the game in the bottom half on Damion Easley's solo
homer, then took a 4-3 lead in the fifth when Clark tripled and
scored on Deivi Cruz's groundout.
But Santos failed again to hold a lead, walking two batters in
the sixth before giving way to Murray. On Murray's first pitch,
Russell Branyan hit a run-scoring double to tie it at 4.
"I'm disappointed, because even though I kept us in the game, I
didn't do enough," Santos said. "I pitched against these guys
last week, and didn't do very well, so I didn't throw them the same
pitches. This time, they hit different pitches out."
Game notes
Cleveland's Juan Gonzalez left the game in the seventh
inning with a bruised left big toe after fouling a ball off his
foot. ... Rincon, who missed the previous four games to attend to
family business in Mexico, returned to the team and got two outs.
... Clark's triple was his first since he had three in the 1997
season. ... Burba entered the game with two wild pitches in 57 2/3
innings this year, then threw three in five innings Tuesday. ...
Alomar's homer was just his third in 285 at-bats, dating back to
last September.
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OTHER GAMES
Baseball Scoreboard
Cleveland Clubhouse
Detroit Clubhouse
RECAPS
Cleveland 6
Detroit 4
Toronto 4
Chi. White Sox 0
Texas 8
Kansas City 2
Minnesota 6
Anaheim 5
Tampa Bay 5
Oakland 1
Seattle 3
Baltimore 2
Chicago Cubs 10
Cincinnati 5
Florida 5
Pittsburgh 0
Philadelphia 7
NY Mets 3
Atlanta 7
Montreal 4
Milwaukee 7
St. Louis 0
San Diego 5
Houston 4
Colorado 7
Los Angeles 2
Arizona 1
San Francisco 0
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