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 Light-hitting Omar Infante, who came into the game hitting .217,
recorded a single, double, home run and a career-high seven RBIs to
lead the Royals to an 8-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians at
Progressive Field.
"We made mistakes pitching to Infante all night, and he killed us,"
Cleveland manager Terry Francona said.
Infante hit a three-run homer in the second inning, a two-run double
in the fifth and a two-run single in the seventh.
"It felt good. It was a great win today," he said.
Right-hander Yordano Ventura (12-8) pitched five innings to get the
win. The loss went to right-hander Corey Kluber (8-14).
Ventura pitched five innings and threw 95 pitches. He gave up three
runs ( two earned) on eight hits.
"He was grinding his tail off all night," Kansas City manager Ned
Yost said. "I think he took it upon himself to stop this streak. He
was really working hard."
The Royals came into the game having lost nine of their last 12, due
mainly to inconsistent hitting and pitching.
"Hopefully this will get us on a nice run and we'll get back to
playing good baseball," Yost said.
The Royals scored three runs in the second and fifth innings to lead
6-3, and added two insurance runs in the seventh on a two-run single
by Infante off right-hander Gavin Floyd to give Kansas City an 8-3
lead.
Most of those runs came against the Cleveland bullpen. Kluber, who
was making his first start since Aug. 29 due to a strained
hamstring, was removed after four innings as a precautionary
measure.
"I might have been overly protective, but I'm not going to apologize
for it," Francona said. "When you've been down as long as he was, I
just thought it was in his best interest to take him out there. It
was the right thing to do."
Kluber, who threw 61 pitches and was charged with three runs (two
earned) and five hits, with five strikeouts and no walks, said he
could have gone farther.
"I tried to talk him into letting me go back out there, but I
understand his point of view," Kluber said. "I'm not going to push
it. He makes the call, and that's it."
Cleveland scored all its runs off Ventura in the first five innings,
and the Royals' vaunted bullpen shut down the Indians over the next
four innings. Right-handers Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Wade
Davis combined to pitch three scoreless innings on one hit, with
three strikeouts and no walks.
"Anytime we get into the sixth inning with the lead, I feel our
starter did his job," Yost said.
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Left-hander Franklin Morales gave up an unearned run in the ninth,
in which Cleveland rallied to load the bases, but right-hander Greg
Holland relieved Morales and picked up his 32nd save when he got
catcher Yan Gomes to ground into a game-ending double play.
Kluber showed some signs of rust, especially in the second inning
when he gave up three consecutive hits - the last of those being a
three-run home run by Infante, who has only hit two home runs in 438
at bats this year, but both of them have come at Progressive Field.
The Indians scored two runs in the second off Ventura, one on an RBI
single by second baseman Jason Kipnis and the other on a throwing
error by left fielder Ben Zobrist.
"It was definitely a grind out there," Ventura said. "I had good
stuff, but I wasn't consistent with it. I just tried to keep it
close and wait for our offense to score."
With Kluber out of the game, the Royals struck for three runs in the
fifth inning off left-hander Kyle Crockett. The big blow in that
inning was Infante's two-run double that gave the Royals a 6-2 lead.
Cleveland got a run back in the fifth, but the Royals bullpen took
over after that.
NOTES: Royals LHP Danny Duffy, who in his last four starts is 0-2
with a 5.59 ERA, has been moved to the bullpen. He will be replaced
in the rotation by RHP Jeremy Guthrie, who in 23 starts earlier this
season before being moved to the bullpen was 8-7 with a 5.65 ERA.
... Royals 3B Mike Moustakas has 19 home runs and 72 RBIs, one shy
in both categories of his career highs, both set in 2012. ...
Indians RHP Trevor Bauer has been moved to the bullpen to make room
for RHP Corey Kluber, who returned to the rotation Thursday after
missing 2 1/2 weeks with a hamstring strain. Bauer has pitched less
than four innings in three of his last six starts. In his last seven
starts, he is 2-4 with a 7.63 ERA.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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