Royals 2, Indians 0
Danny Duffy scattered six hits in as many innings in his first start in over two weeks as visiting Kansas City blanked Cleveland, pulling within one game of Detroit in the American League Central race.
Duffy (9-11), who left a start on Sept. 6 after one pitch due to a shoulder injury, walked two and struck out five on 96 pitches before handing it off to the bullpen. Eric Hosmer and Alcides Escobar each singled in a run and Omar Infante doubled and scored for the Royals, who moved two games ahead of the Seattle Mariners in the race for the second AL wild card.
Carlos Carrasco (8-6) struck out nine while allowing two runs and seven hits over 7 1/3 innings in a tough-luck loss as the Indians fell 3 1/2 games behind Kansas City in the wild-card race. Michael Bourn doubled among two hits for Cleveland, which won the completion of a suspended game before the start of the regularly scheduled contest.
Nori Aoki reached on a single in the first inning and stole second before coming home when Hosmer grounded a hard single just inside the bag down the first-base line. Infante doubled leading off the fifth and moved up on a groundout before Escobar sent a hard shot to short that glanced off Jose Ramirez’s glove with the infield drawn in.
Duffy worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the first and stranded two in the second before settling in, allowing just three hits across the next four frames. Brandon Finnegan worked a scoreless seventh, Wade Davis pitched around a leadoff walk in the eighth and Greg Holland picked up his 44th save with a perfect ninth.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Indians LF Michael Brantley went 1-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. … Cleveland 2B Jason Kipnis (hamstring) sat for the fourth time in six games and remains day-to-day. … Holland took the loss in the completion of the suspended game after allowing a pair of unearned runs back on Aug. 31.