Alomar’s Home Run Clinches Wild Card

American League

Roberto Alomar, the center of an ugly pregame incident involving an umpire, put the Baltimore Orioles into the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, hitting a 10th-inning homer Saturday for a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

The victory clinched the American League wild-card berth for the Orioles.

Alomar hit his 22nd homer of the season off Paul Spoljaric (2-2) with two outs in the 10th. The home run occurred one day after he spit in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck after being ejected for arguing a third-strike call.

Alomar received a five-day suspension Saturday, but appealed the decision and was allowed to play.

Hirschbeck did not dress for the game. The umpire, incensed over comments made by Alomar pertaining to Hirschbeck’s late son, charged into the Orioles clubhouse before the game and had to be restrained by fellow umpire Jim Joyce.

Hirschbeck, visibly shaken by the incident, took the day off as a three-man crew worked the game.

Mike Mussina, bidding for his 20th win, left after eight innings with a 2-1 lead. Orioles reliever Armando Benitez gave up a tying homer to Ed Sprague with one out in the ninth. Randy Myers (4-4) got the victory.

Yankees 4, Red Sox 2 Boston

In what may have been his last start for the Red Sox, Roger Clemens struck out 10 but failed to break Cy Young’s team record for wins as Mike Aldrete and Bernie Williams homered Saturday to give New York a victory over Boston.

Clemens (10-13), who will be a free agent after the season, has said he wants a four-year contract and the Red Sox say they will not give him one. The three-time Cy Young award winner, who has won 192 games while spending his entire 13-year career with Boston, had said he would like to break Young’s record before he left.

If he goes, Clemens would also leave Boston tied with Young with 38 shutouts. But the 10 strikeouts Saturday - nine by the fifth inning - moved him past Bob Feller and Warren Spahn into 15th place on the all-time list with 2,590.

Indians 5, Royals 4 Kansas City, Mo.

Albert Belle hit his 48th homer and Kevin Seitzer went 4 for 4, giving the Indians a chance to become the first team with consecutive 100-win seasons since Baltimore in 1979 and ‘80.

Twins 7, White Sox 6 Minneapolis

Eliminated from the wild-card race earlier in the day, Chicago lost when Pat Meares singled home the winning run in the ninth off Tony Castillo (5-4).

Paul Molitor went 4 for 5 and raised his RBI total to a career-high 112. He raised his career hits total to 3,011, moving past Al Kaline (3,007) into 19th place on the career list.

Rangers 4, Angels 3 Arlington, Texas

Texas celebrated its first A.L. West title into the early hours before sending out its backups to beat California.

Luis Ortiz and Damon Buford homered and Darren Oliver pitched six strong innings for the Rangers.

Brewers 7, Tigers 2 Detroit

Cal Eldred pitched six shutout innings and Jeff Cirillo had four hits as Milwaukee handed Detroit its 16th straight home loss.

Gooden will sit

David Cone will start the first game of the playoffs for the New York Yankees, with 21-game winner Andy Pettitte pitching Game 2 and Dwight Gooden sitting out the series against Texas, manager Joe Torre said. Torre said he would round out his rotation with Jimmy Key (12-11) and Kenny Rogers (12-8).

Clearing the bases

When Alex Gonzalez was hit by a pitch, he extended Toronto’s major-league record to 92… . Jeff Cirillo and John Jaha are the first Brewers to reach 100 runs in the same season since Cecil Cooper and Robin Yount in 1983.