Jacobs Field

CLEVELAND -- Somebody stole the drab gray skyline and replaced it with a bunch of shiny buildings and a sparkling new baseball stadium. That's the first thing that's different about Cleveland.The other thing is the civic inferiority complex. Somebody stole that, too.The "Mistake by the Lake" has been corrected. Cleveland, the butt of all bad-city humor for a generation, suddenly has become another glowing symbol of the promise of urban renaissance. The city even has developed a bit of an attitude.

CLEVELAND -- This we know: Closer Chris Ray pitched a scoreless ninth inning last night and the game ended with the Orioles celebrating a 7-4 comeback victory over the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field. The win, secured after Corey Patterson hit a go-ahead, two-run double to right field with two outs in the eighth inning, broke the Orioles' five-game losing streak and ends the Indians' six-game winning streak. Or so both teams think. Orioles @Indians Today, 1:05 p.m., Ch. 13, MASN, 105.7 FM Starters: Jaret Wright (0-2, 6.14)

CLEVELAND -- A house that has been filled with horrors shouldn't seem quite so scary to the Orioles, even with all the ghosts swirling around it. Yet, somehow, it still does. The floor boards still creak, objects move by themselves, and players run screaming into the night -- mostly out of frustration. The stands at Jacobs Field weren't even half full last night. Fans of the Cleveland Indians don't burst through the gates anymore to watch Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton or Albert Belle. They won't find Manny Ramirez or Sandy Alomar, either, and they needed a program to identify the starting pitcher, rookie Jason Davis, who began last season at Single-A.

Cleveland -- The Orioles were already having a bad week when they arrived at Jacobs Field yesterday for their last series of the first half of the season. They had been outscored by 18 runs in three straight losses to the Chicago White Sox. And a rotation that had thrived for a time looked lost again. Kris Benson seemed as good a bet as anyone to ease his team's pain. He had been the Orioles' most consistent starter for most of the season. Orioles@Indians Tonight, 7:05, Ch. 13, 1090 AM Starters: Orioles' Erik Bedard (9-6, 4.44)

CLEVELAND -- In prior years, the Orioles came to Jacobs Field to find out how good they were, which wasn't good enough.No matter how well they fared against the rest of the American League, they were always made aware of their second-tier status when they came to Cleveland and absorbed a weekend of whackings at the hands of the powerful Indians.But times have changed.After yesterday's 8-3 defeat of the Indians, the Orioles have split their first two games of 1997 at Jacobs Field, looking nothing like a team that is overmatched.

Cleveland -- The Orioles were already having a bad week when they arrived at Jacobs Field yesterday for their last series of the first half of the season. They had been outscored by 18 runs in three straight losses to the Chicago White Sox. And a rotation that had thrived for a time looked lost again. Kris Benson seemed as good a bet as anyone to ease his team's pain. He had been the Orioles' most consistent starter for most of the season. Orioles@Indians Tonight, 7:05, Ch. 13, 1090 AM Starters: Orioles' Erik Bedard (9-6, 4.44)

CLEVELAND -- This we know: Closer Chris Ray pitched a scoreless ninth inning last night and the game ended with the Orioles celebrating a 7-4 comeback victory over the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field. The win, secured after Corey Patterson hit a go-ahead, two-run double to right field with two outs in the eighth inning, broke the Orioles' five-game losing streak and ends the Indians' six-game winning streak. Or so both teams think. Orioles @Indians Today, 1:05 p.m., Ch. 13, MASN, 105.7 FM Starters: Jaret Wright (0-2, 6.14)

At Jacobs Field, Cleveland Day....Time....TV....Starters Tonight...7:05...CSN...Scott Erickson (3-3, 4.22) vs. Danys Baez (4-3, 3.92) Tomorrow...7:05...CSN...Rodrigo Lopez (5-0, 2.31) vs. Bartolo Colon (4-3, 3.00) Thursday...7:05...CSN...Calvin Maduro (2-3, 4.35) vs. C.C. Sabathia (3-4, 6.31) Radio: All games on WBAL (1090 AM) Indians update A promising start has been erased for the Cleveland Indians, who suffered their 19th loss in 25 games on Sunday. Even worse, it completed a three-game sweep by the lowly Kansas City Royals, their first against the Indians at home in nearly 17 years.

CLEVELAND - Mark Shapiro won't forget his visit to this city in November 1991. It was cold and wet, and the cab driver took him by the site where Jacobs Field was to be built. "He told me that someone had just gotten car-jacked there," Shapiro said. "I was wondering what I was doing there." His interview with the Indians was at Municipal Stadium, a vast facility built in 1932. In 1991, when the Indians lost 105 games, the official average attendance was 12,985. But there were many times when only several hundred showed up. No, Cleveland wasn't the top choice for Shapiro.

CLEVELAND -- OK, if you expected this from David Wells when he walked away from the Orioles two years ago, please raise your hand.Be honest. If you expected Wells to go 34-14 over two regular seasons, throw a perfect game in Yankee Stadium and become baseball's best postseason pitcher, raise you hand.Hello? Anyone out there?Of course not.No one expected Wells to do this. Not even Wells himself.After going 11-14 with a 5.14 ERA for the Orioles in 1996, Wells hardly seemed a candidate for a miraculous career leap.

Scouting report: O's vs. Indians At Jacobs Field, Cleveland Day Time TV Starters Today 1:05 54, 20 Eric DuBose (4-4, 4.98) vs. Jake Westbrook (5-2, 3.06) Radio: Game on WBAL (1090 AM) Cleveland's bullpen still is a sore spot, but it has improved lately. Indians relievers have allowed just one run in their past 16 2/3 innings, which included a scoreless streak of 13 2/3 innings that ended yesterday. They still are just 10-for-24 in save chances, and Jose Jimenez is their third closer of the season.

CLEVELAND -- A house that has been filled with horrors shouldn't seem quite so scary to the Orioles, even with all the ghosts swirling around it. Yet, somehow, it still does. The floor boards still creak, objects move by themselves, and players run screaming into the night -- mostly out of frustration. The stands at Jacobs Field weren't even half full last night. Fans of the Cleveland Indians don't burst through the gates anymore to watch Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton or Albert Belle. They won't find Manny Ramirez or Sandy Alomar, either, and they needed a program to identify the starting pitcher, rookie Jason Davis, who began last season at Single-A.

CLEVELAND - Mark Shapiro won't forget his visit to this city in November 1991. It was cold and wet, and the cab driver took him by the site where Jacobs Field was to be built. "He told me that someone had just gotten car-jacked there," Shapiro said. "I was wondering what I was doing there." His interview with the Indians was at Municipal Stadium, a vast facility built in 1932. In 1991, when the Indians lost 105 games, the official average attendance was 12,985. But there were many times when only several hundred showed up. No, Cleveland wasn't the top choice for Shapiro.

CLEVELAND -- OK, if you expected this from David Wells when he walked away from the Orioles two years ago, please raise your hand.Be honest. If you expected Wells to go 34-14 over two regular seasons, throw a perfect game in Yankee Stadium and become baseball's best postseason pitcher, raise you hand.Hello? Anyone out there?Of course not.No one expected Wells to do this. Not even Wells himself.After going 11-14 with a 5.14 ERA for the Orioles in 1996, Wells hardly seemed a candidate for a miraculous career leap.

CLEVELAND -- Orlando Hernandez knows about pressure. H faced it less than 10 months ago when he and seven others defected from Cuba and were eventually picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard on a tiny Caribbean island. Confronting a different kind of peril last night, Hernandez rescued the New York Yankees with the calm of a man who has been places far more dangerous than Jacobs Field. Hernandez and relievers Mike Stanton and Mariano Rivera combined for a 4-0 shutout of the Cleveland Indians that evened the American League Championship Series at two games apiece.

CLEVELAND -- Indians fever ran high here all week and only got worse yesterday as Clevelanders congregated in their shiny new stadium and cheered on their team to victory -- with hardly a bad word to say about Baltimore.Symptoms of the epidemic are wearing red socks pulled up to the knee, wearing feathers in one's hair and hoarseness induced by a general euphoria."The whole city's been bubbling, just waiting for this series," said Eric Hooper, a 39-year-old sausage-maker, as he stood outside Jacobs Field before the game.