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Thome homers again, O's top Indians

Jul 22, 2012 - 4:03 AM Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - Throughout the nearly 20-year history of Progressive Field, no player has hit more home runs there than former Indian Jim Thome.

Now that he's back in the American League with Baltimore and on a weekend trip to his former stomping grounds, Thome is adding to his record.

Thome launched a go-ahead and winning two-run blast in the seventh inning -- his 190th career home run at the park -- to lead the Orioles to a 3-1 victory over the Indians on Saturday.

In his first 11 games with Baltimore following a trade from Philadelphia, Thome went homerless; however, in both of what are likely his final games in Cleveland, he's left the yard he used to call home.

"I'm starting to get some consistent at-bats, which has been great. It's a roller coaster ride," said Thome. "We're in a situation where we've strung some wins here and then we're just trying to focus every day."

The Orioles' fourth straight win didn't come without good pitching from Chris Tillman (2-1). Tillman, who has struggled throughout his four-year major league career, allowed a leadoff homer to Shin-Soo Choo before holding the Indians otherwise scoreless in 6 2/3 frames.

The tall, lanky righty, who was making only his third start of 2012, gave up six hits and a walk while striking out four.

Zach McAllister (4-2) was a hard-luck loser for the Indians after giving up three runs -- all on two homers -- on five hits. He walked none and struck out six.

"He did a fantastic job, not only of pitching but also giving us enough innings to save our bullpen," Indians manager Manny Acta said about McAllister. "It's unfortunate that we couldn't get enough runs for him because he certainly pitched to win today."

Cleveland has dropped three straight and six of eight.

Choo's homer leading off the first inning made it look like things would go Cleveland's way, but it was quite the opposite.

The Indians stranded a leadoff double in the second, then went the rest of the game without an extra-base hit. For awhile, McAllister made it look as if the 1-0 lead would hold up, but Thome put an end to those thoughts in the seventh.

Baltimore had sent more than three batters to the plate in only one of the first six innings, but J.J. Hardy led off the seventh with a single, leading to Thome's laser line drive homer over the right-field wall.

Tillman continued to dominate into the seventh, and Ryan Flaherty added a deep solo shot for Baltimore in the eighth to provide some insurance.

It went unneeded, however, as Troy Patton and Pedro Strop combined for 1 1/3 scoreless innings before Jim Johnson recorded his 29th save with a scoreless ninth.

Game Notes

The season series is tied, 3-3...The Indians announced today that pitcher Roberto Hernandez -- formerly Fausto Carmona -- has received his U.S. visa and will be suspended for three weeks beginning Saturday...The Indians fell to 38-4 when leading after six innings. Because the game was at home, their 18-0 record in such situations on the road is still intact...Manny Ramirez is second on the career homers list at Progressive Field with 132.