Tribe streak ends

5/11/2001

CLEVELAND - Kansas City's Brian Meadows lugged an 0-4 record and an 8.01 earned-run average into Jacobs Field last night.

Yet, the Royals right-hander outdueled Cleveland ace Bartolo Colon, cooled off the red-hot Indians and picked up his first win.

Meadows allowed five hits and two earned runs in 62/3 innings and the Royals pounded 13 hits and snapped Cleveland's 10-game winning streak with an 8-3 win before 34,502 fans.

The Indians, who had outscored their opponents 86-33 during their winning streak, failed to produce at least five runs in a game for the first time since April 25. They had scored 101 runs in their previous 12 games.

“They out-pitched us and they out-hit us,” Tribe manager Charlie Manuel said. “They deserved to win.”

Meadows (1-4, 7.05 ERA) was aided by four double plays. And the Indians managed just eight hits off him and reliever Jason Grimsley, snapping their streak of 11 straight games with 10 or more.

“The four double plays definitely helped,” Manuel said. “Overall, Meadows did a very good job. He wasn't overpowering us, he was just getting us out at crucial times. It was his night.”

It wasn't nearly as good a night for Colon, who dropped to 4-3 and watched his ERA climb from 3.38 to 3.95 after allowing 10 hits and seven runs in 61/3 innings. He also was tagged for one homer, while walking one and striking out one.

“I didn't feel right with my pitches,” Colon said. “My location was bad the whole night, especially with the two-seam (fastball) and the four-seamer.”

Colon had been 4-1 with a 2.47 ERA his last six starts. But last night's outing was his poorest performance since an Opening Day loss to Chicago. He allowed eight hits and seven runs in seven innings against the White Sox, while walking three and striking out six.

“His velocity was up and he was throwing hard, but he was throwing everything in the fat part of the plate,” Manuel said. “He didn't have real good command.”

Colon was ahead in the count on five of the 10 batters who got hits.

“His pitches were all over the place, on both sides of the plate,” Manuel said.

Kansas City, which owned a 7-5 edge against Cleveland last season, ended a three-game losing streak with last night's win while beating Cleveland (22-10) for the first time in six tries this season.

The loss knocked the Indians out of a first-place tie with Minnesota in the AL Central, because the Twins beat the New York Yankees 5-4 in 10 innings last night.

The Indians had outscored the Royals 43-15 in the first five meetings between the teams, and Kansas City had not scored more than four runs in seven straight games.

The Royals jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Colon, who had gone 10-2 with a 3.18 ERA in his last 19 starts.

With two outs, Mike Sweeney hit a chopper to third that Russell Branyan booted. Jermaine Dye and Joe Randa followed with back-to-back singles to left with Randa's hit scoring Sweeney from second.

Kansas City went up 2-0 in the second when Mark Quinn opened with a single, moved to second on a fielder's choice and scored on Carlos Beltran's single to center.

The Indians cut the lead to 2-1 in the second when Dye badly misplayed a ball hit by Juan Gonzalez into a three-base error. Gonzalez scored on Jim Thome's double off the wall in center.

Cleveland's Marty Cordova followed with a two-run homer to left, extending his hitting streak to 15 games while putting the Indians on top 3-2. Cordova, who finished 3-for-4, hit the first pitch from Meadows 414 feet over the wall in left for his seventh homer of the season.

Kansas City tied the game at 3 in the fourth, then took the lead for good at 4-3 in the fifth when Dye doubled off the wall in center, scoring Sweeney.

The Royals made it 5-3 in the sixth when Beltran belted an 0-1 pitch from Colon over the wall in left-center.

Sweeney scored on a fielder's choice in the seventh and Quinn lined an RBI double to left, scoring the seventh run.

Sweeney closed out the scoring with an RBI single in the eighth.