Royals Chase Down Indians

Something about Jed Hansen has the Cleveland Indians' bullpen afraid to throw a ball over the plate to him.

"I guess they're just scared of those .100 hitters," he joked.

Hansen's four-pitch walk with two outs in the 10th inning loaded the bases and Carlos Beltran cleared them with a double off Paul Shuey on Friday night, giving the Kansas City Royals a 9-7 win over Cleveland.

Beltran's double into the right-field corner came one pitch after Shuey (5-3) walked Hansen, a .100 hitter, on four pitches. Hansen has three walks in 10 at-bats this season, with all three walks coming against the Indians.

Jermaine Dye homered twice for the Royals, whose bullpen blew a 5-3 lead in the eighth and cost starter Jose Rosado a victory.

"Rosado pitched well and it's a little disheartening that we don't get him a win," Kansas City manager Tony Muser said. "He is a very underrated pitcher."

Matt Whisenant (3-3) pitched two innings for the win. He gave up an RBI single to Travis Fryman in the 10th, but got Kenny Lofton to ground out with two runners on to end it.

Jeremy Giambi doubled with one out in the 10th off Shuey and Chad Kreuter was intentionally walked. One out later, Shuey couldn't find the plate and walked to Hansen.

Beltran, who was waiting on Shuey's fastball, followed with his double, scoring three and causing the Jacobs Field crowd to boo the Indians for one of the first times all year.

"I don't care about the boos," said Indians closer Mike Jackson, who got burned by a leadoff walk in the ninth when the Royals tied it. "People have a right to their own opinion. I don't come out to play for that, I come to play for my teammates."

Shuey had retired Beltran twice last week by starting him off with a breakng pitch. This time, he shook off catcher Einar Diaz's call for a curveball, and paid for it.

"It was a bad game plan," Shuey said.

Trailing 5-3 after being held to two hits over seven innings by Rosado, the Indians scored three runs in the eighth off Scott Service to take a 6-5 lead.

Jim Thome hit a two-run single and Fryman doubled home the go-ahead run. But Jackson, who had looked so dominant a night earlier against Minnesota, let Kansas City tie it on Joe Randa's sacrifice fly.

Dye's second homer, a two-run shot in the sixth, gave him a career-high 13 homers this season. It was the first two-homer game of his career, and unfortunately for Dwight Gooden, it came on a night the Indians had the right-hander under the microscope.

Gooden had the shortest outing of his 15-year career in his last start, getting just one out against the Royals last Sunday. Indians manager Mike Hargrove stressed the importance of Gooden's start, leading to speculation the right-hander could be sent to the bullpen, Triple-A Buffalo or even released with a poor effort.

But Gooden was able to pitch into the sixth inning, something he had done just four times previously in 14 starts this year. He allowed eight hits and five runs in 6 1-3 innings, walked five and struck out two.

"For right now, Doc's still in the rotation," Hargrove said. "He wasn't perfect. But I saw him getting a little more aggressive. By no means was this an outstanding outing. But it wasn't a disaster."

Rosado limited the majors' top-hitting team to a first-inning single and Roberto Alomar's sixth-inning homer, but was once again denied a win over the Indians. Last year, he pitched a two-hitter against Cleveland on July 3, but both hits were solo homers by Manny Ramirez and the Indians won 2-1.

Mike Sweeney drove in a run for the 10th straight game for Kansas City, one short of the team record set by Frank White in 1983.

Dye's homer tied his career high set in 1996 with Atlanta and was his first since May 30.

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