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Royals dethrone Tribe Indians' reign as AL Central champs ends with spanking
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Cleveland Indians' only route left to the playoffs is through the wild card this season. Cleveland's run as AL Central champions ended Sunday, as Blake Stein pitched seven scoreless innings to lead the Kansas City Royals to an 9-0 win. "It doesn't matter if you win the division," Cleveland's Jim Thome said. "It's getting in and winning the whole thing that's important. We're not worrying about the division, we're worrying about getting in." Cleveland, the only team to win the AL Central before Chicago this season, trails by one game in the wild card race. "We really haven't thought about winning the division for the last two weeks. We've been trying to get in as a wild card," Thome said. "That's been where we've been the whole time. Chicago has played well and they deserved it."
The Indians headed home to play a unique day-night doubleheader Monday. Cleveland plays AL Central champion Chicago in an afternoon makeup game before playing Minnesota at night in a regularly scheduled night game. Since 1900, only once has there been a three-team doubleheader at the same ballpark. The St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Giants 6-4, then lost to the Boston Braves 2-0 on Sept. 13, 1951, at Sportsman's Park. Stein (8-4) allowed four hits and has given up just two earned runs in his last 24 innings. The right-hander has won seven of last eight decisions. "I'm throwing strikes with all three pitches," Stein said. "Not to say that they are great pitches, but when you throw three pitches for strikes it throws them off balance." The Royals scored five runs in the third off Charles Nagy (2-7) to take a 6-0 lead. Gregg Zaun led off with a walk and went to third on a soft single to center by Jeff Reboulet. Johnny Damon followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0. After a sacrifice bunt, Mike Sweeney hit a sacrifice fly. Jermaine Dye walked and Joe Randa added an RBI single, scoring Damon with his league-leading 131st run, two short of the Royals team record. Jamie Brewington came on and gave up consecutive RBI singles to Carlos Beltran and Mark Quinn. Nagy gave up six runs, four hits and two walks in 2 2-3 innings, raising his ERA to 8.21. "We can't have too many more days like today," Indians manager Charlie Manuel said. "Every game we play cuts into our time. We got beat and we didn't deserve to win." The Royals added two more runs in the seventh on Quinn's two-run double off Chris Nichting. Quinn now has 77 RBIs, which leads all AL rookies. Notes: Damon stole his league-leading 45th base in the first inning. ... Cleveland 1B David Segui picked up his first error of the year on a strange play in the seventh inning. With runners on first and third and one out, Reboulet lined out to Roberto Alomar at second. Alomar threw back to first in an attempt to double up Zaun, but Segui failed to touch the bag. Alomar was credited with an assist on the play, and Segui's errorless streak ended at 69 games and 585 chances. ... Sandy Alomar caught his 945th game in an Indians uniform, passing Luke Sewell for third-most games caught in Cleveland history. ... Manny Ramirez had his 49-game string of reaching base safely snapped at 49 games. He was 0-for-3. ... When Chris Haney appeared in the eighth inning for Cleveland, he was the 32nd pitcher used by the Indians this year, extending a major league record.
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