Alomar Drives Indians By Cubs

When he joined the Indians, Roberto Alomar had one goal to win a World Series trophy with his brother, Sandy.

At the rate he's going, Robbie might take home some other hardware.

One day after his baserunning instincts beat Chicago, Alomar drove in three runs and Charles Nagy won his fourth straight start Sunday to give the Cleveland Indians a 4-2 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Alomar hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning and a two-run single in the fifth as the Indians took two of three from the Cubs.

With the season now one-third complete, Alomar is the best all-around player on the best team in baseball. If an MVP award was given after the first 54 games, Alomar would be the pick.

Even if he doesn't think so.

"I just have to continue to do my job," he said. "I don't look at numbers or winning the MVP or anything. I'm not worried about personal goals or things like that."

"I just go out and play my game every day and hopefully that help us reach our goal, winning the World Series. If we have an MVP, anyways I think it would be Manny Ramirez."

David Justice homered for the third straight game, and Kenny Lofton added three hits and two steals for Cleveland.

"Everybody expects them to hit five homers a game," said Chicago's Steve Trachsel (2-7). "They played little ball and beat us."

After giving up two runs and four hits in the first, Nagy (7-3) pitched five shutout innings despite having some soreness in his right shoulder. He got Sammy Sosa on a grounder with two on in the second and struck out the Cubs slugger to end the fifth.

In his last four starts, Nagy is 4-0 with a 1.67 ERA.

Nagy awoke with a tight shoulder fter pitching in New York last Monday. He said it was tight early on against the Cubs, but loosened up after the first inning.

"It felt funny," he said. "And I was thinking about it a little when I went out there. But after I got loose I was able to make the pitches that I needed to."

Sosa, who hasn't homered off the Indians in 139 career at-bats, went 1-for-4 and finished the 3-for-12 with two RBIs in the series.

Steve Karsay struck out Sosa with a runner at third in the eighth, and Ricky Rincon got the final out of the inning. After a leadoff walk in the ninth, Paul Shuey closed for his fourth save.

Trailing 2-1 and held to three hits through four innings by Trachsel, the Indians rallied for two runs with two outs in the fifth, sparked by Chris Turner's first stolen base in five years.

Turner singled and with Lofton at the plate with an 0-2 count, Turner broke for second on a double steal. Turner made it to second when catcher Tyler Houston double-clutched and then bounced his throw.

"That was the perfect situation to do it," said Turner. "I'm the sacrificial lamb. If I get thrown out, Kenny gets to start the next inning with a new count."

Cubs manager Jim Riggleman said he was disappointed his team got caught off guard by the play.

"You try to make that aware to the players but sometimes the information does not get through," he said. "It should not have happened to us. We had a little lapse."

Turner's first steal since 1994 for California was followed by Lofton's single, putting runners at the corners. Lofton then swiped second and Omar Vizquel walked before Alomar grounded a two-run single to right.

"Alomar is a tough out, but there he just found a hole," said Trachsel. "I made my pitch and he hit a seeing-eye single. I'll bet if I threw that pitch again he hits it right at (second baseman) Mickey Morandini. But he didn't."

That's been the case with Alomar all season. Whatever the Indians need, he provides it.

"I think the biggest thing for me this year is that I've been healthy," said Alomar, bothered by ankle and shoulder injuries last year in Baltimore, and by losing on an Orioles team that wasn't supposed to lose.

"I think when you're playing on a good team like the Indians and when you're winning, you're not going to hear any negative stuff," he said. "Last year in Baltimore we weren't playing that good all you heard is negative."

Justice connected for his 13th homer with outs in the sixth to make it 4-2.

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