No relief for Tribe in defeat Story-Date: 01:39 a.m. PST Thursday , June 4, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------ No relief for Tribe in defeat Colon's fine outing wasted as Twins score two in eighth off Assenmacher and Mesa for 3-2 victory BY SHELDON OCKER Beacon Journal staff writer MINNEAPOLIS: These are not your father's Twins. Gone are the days of Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Chili Davis, Chuck Knoblauch and Gary Gaetti, feared hitters whose scorching line drives could turn the Metrodome into a pinball machine with seats. The new Twins are more subtle. Pitching and defense count. Minnesota is last in the league in home runs, but stands second in the moribund Central Division. So far, the Indians like the old Twins better. The new ones eked out a 3-2 win last night to spoil another excellent performance by Bartolo Colon. One problem was the offense. Sandy Alomar and David Justice produced the only meaningful hits for the Tribe, a pair of home runs with nobody on base. Otherwise, it was the bullpen that let Colon down after he had pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowed six hits and two walks. He was charged with all the runs, but Jose Mesa let in two of them in the decisive eighth inning. "It was unfortunate that Bartolo pitched the way he did and got the loss," Jim Thome said. "But on the Twins' side, they played hard for nine innings." Mike Hargrove has seen Colon in even a more dominating mode. "Bartolo's been sharper," the manager said. "But he certainly threw good enough to win." Minnesota dented Colon's armor in the first inning, when Otis Nixon led off with a single, took second on a groundout and scored on Orlando Merced's two-out single. That was a bad sign for the Tribe. When the Twins score in the first inning, their record is 12-7. But Minnesota gave Colon (4-4, 3.20 ERA) no further trouble until he yielded a one-out walk to Nixon and a two-out bloop single to Paul Molitor in the eighth. Paul Assenmacher was summoned from the bullpen and walked pinch hitter Alex Ochoa to load the bases. With right-handed batter Marty Cordova up next, Mesa was called in. He only threw one pitch. Cordova lined it to right for a two-run single. "I thought he hit a pretty good pitch, up and in," Thome said. Assenmacher thought he might have been squeezed by plate umpire Jim McKean. "The 2-and-1 pitch was pretty close," Assenmacher said. "Anything that close -- well, the umpire just didn't see it that way. Once I was behind, I wasn't going to give in, but I put Jose in a tough situation where he had to throw strikes." Hargrove did not regret his choice of relievers. "You can't be perfect all the time," the manager said. "I'll take the effort we're getting out of these guys. If we get in the same situation tomorrow, I'll put the same guys out there." Minnesota starter LaTroy Hawkins had faced the Tribe only once before, July 12 of last year. He gave up six runs in 4 2/3 innings in a 12-5 loss. The pitcher who started against the Tribe last night purported to be that same person. Maybe he was, but you couldn't tell it by the way he was pitching. In 7 2/3 innings, Hawkins gave up both runs on seven hits and only one walk while striking out five. "He had good velocity and he threw strikes," Hargrove said. "We hit a couple of balls hard right at people, and some of their guys made good defensive plays." To be sure, the double-play ball was Hawkins' friend, but he deserves the credit for making Cleveland's batsmen beat the ball into the plastic turf. Alomar made Hawkins pay by blasting a two-out homer into the left-field seats in the second inning. Justice followed suit in the seventh, when he led off with his 11th home run to right. But most of Cleveland's threats ended in frustration. For example, after Justice homered, Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez singled to put runners on first and second with nobody out. But Mark Whiten struck out for the third time, and Alomar bounced into a double play. The Indians suffered a similar fate in the first inning, which began with Kenny Lofton's single. Omar Vizquel followed with a fly deep to right, but Justice singled, Lofton stopping at second. The rally died quickly when Thome grounded into a double play. The Twins also made two exceptional defensive plays to avoid problems in the sixth inning. David Bell was robbed of a hit by left fielder Cordova, who ran a long way to snag a line drive. Vizquel was denied an infield single by shortstop Pat Meares, who turned a tough ground ball into an out. "We had our chances," Hargrove said. "`They got two two-out hits to drive in three runs," Hargrove said. "Give them credit." ------------------------------------------------------------