Cleveland ? As Matt Lawton stepped to the plate in the eighth inning, Jacobs Field pulsated and the pounding in his ears told him all he needed to know.

The Indians were coming back.

“When that drum started beating out there ” Lawton, one of the newest Indians said, shaking his head. “As an opposing player, you almost grow to accept it.”

Down by five runs in the eighth, the Indians rallied for their 10th straight win and most improbable one yet in 2002, 8-7 on Saturday over the Kansas City Royals.

“We don’t want to lose,” Ellis Burks said.

And now Cleveland’s sensational start this season has the only thing it was missing: a fantastic finish.

Cleveland scored five runs three on Lawton’s homer to tie it at 7 in the eighth, and then won it with one out in the bottom of the ninth when pinch-runner Einar Diaz scored on Jason Grimsley’s wild pitch.

At 11-1, the Indians own baseball’s best record and are off to their best start since opening the 1966 season 14-1.

“The only thing we hadn’t done was have a big comeback,” said reliever Paul Shuey (1-0), who has now seen the Indians rally to win 93 times in their last at-bat in the Jake since 1994.

“People will be watching on ESPN tonight and it will be in the back of their minds that we can come back.”

The Royals had to learn that the hard way.

“We should have won,” Royals manager Tony Muser said. “No question about it. We had three pitchers to get six outs and we didn’t get it done.”

Cleveland also had a 10-game winning streak last season from April 28-May 9.

Jim Thome and Ellis Burks also homered for Cleveland, which is now 9-0 against the AL Central this season.

Eddie Perez, who started Cleveland’s eighth-inning rally with a single, opened the ninth with a single off Cory Bailey (0-2) and was replaced by Diaz.

Bailey then struck out John McDonald and walked Lawton before being replaced by Grimsley.

Omar Vizquel singled to load the bases, and Diaz scored when Grimsley bounced his second pitch in the dirt past catcher A.J. Hinch.

The Indians poured out of the dugout to greet Diaz as most of the crowd of 28,455, which sat through a 1 hour, 22-minute rain delay at the start, celebrated the Indians’ most amazing win of the young season.

“If you were in the dugout in the eighth inning, you could feel it,” said Indians manager Charlie Manuel. “We were loose even down 7-2. It didn’t bother us a bit.”

Raul Ibanez and Neifi Perez had two RBIs apiece for the Royals, who appeared in control leading 7-2 in the eighth.

But down to their final six outs and facing adversity for the first time in 2002, the Indians, who had just four hits through seven innings, came back.

“We haven’t had the opportunity,” Vizquel said. “This was a good test. The guys that have been here for a while, we know the great tradition of coming from behind.”

Perez and McDonald singled to open the inning off Jeremy Affeldt, who was lifted for Brian Shouse. Lawton, who flied out in a similar spot in the fifth, then hit a weak grounder toward first that Mike Sweeney didn’t charge until it was too late, and the ball rolled foul by inches.

“I just wanted to get another chance,” said Lawton, who ran down the line signaling foul to help first base ump Mike Reilly make his call. “I said to myself, ‘OK, make that work for you’.”

Lawton did by hitting Shouse’s next pitch over the wall in right for his fourth homer to make it 7-5.

Vizquel walked and Shouse was replaced by Bailey, who promptly walked Burks. Thome followed by hitting an RBI double, and Travis Fryman’s RBI groundout tied it 7-all.

“New ballgame,” Shuey said. “I’ve seen it happen before.”

The Royals scored four runs in the fourth inning off Ryan Drese, who until the rally was in line to become the first member of Cleveland’s rotation to lose this season.

Darrell May, making his first major league start since Sept. 8, 1997, held the Indians to just two hits homers by Burks and Thome in 4 1-3 innings.

Needing two outs to be eligible for his first win since Aug. 31, 1997, May had to leave when he reaggravated his strained left groin while throwing a strike to Brady Anderson.

Drese allowed seven runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings the shortest outing by a Cleveland starter this season. He walked five and struck out four.

Notes: Indians starters are still 10-0. … A computer glitch knocked Fox’s telecast of the game off the air in Cleveland for several innings. … After starting the season 14-1, the ’66 Indians, who featured pitchers Sam McDowell and Luis Tiant, finished 81-81. … Thome’s homer was the 150th of his career at Jacobs Field. … May pitched for the Yomiuri Giants last season before signing with the Royals in December.