Indians 8, Royals 3
CLEVELAND -- Carlos Carrasco struck out nine in six innings, and Lonnie Chisenhall had three hits and three RBIs to lead the Cleveland Indians to an 8-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night at Progressive Field.
Carrasco (13-10) gave up one run on five hits.
Royals right-hander Edinson Volquez (13-8) gave up four runs in five innings and took the loss, Kansas City's 10th in its past 14 games.
Trailing 4-1, the Royals started to make noise when Carrasco started to run out of gas in the sixth. After striking out the first two batters of the inning, the right-hander gave up a walk, a single and another walk to load the bases with two outs. However, Carrasco retired designated hitter Kendrys Morales on a groundout to escape the jam.
Cleveland went to its bullpen in the seventh inning, and the Royals scored two runs. With one out, catcher Salvador Perez singled off right-hander Zach McAllister. Right fielder Alex Rios also singled, and a wild pitch by McAllister moved the runners to second and third.
McAllister retired shortstop Alcides Escobar on an infield popout for the second out, and right-hander Bryan Shaw entered. Left fielder Alex Gordon and second baseman Ben Zobrist then hit consecutive dribblers down the third base line that both went as RBI infield singles. Perez scored on Gordon's hit and Rios scored on Zobrist's hit, cutting Cleveland's lead to 4-3.
The Indians responded with three runs in the bottom of the seventh off right-hander Kelvin Herrera. With one out left fielder Michael Brantley hit his major-league-leading 44th double into the gap in left-center field. First baseman Carlos Santana drew a walk.
Chisenhall, Cleveland's right fielder, grounded a single into right field to score Brantley to extend the margin to 5-3. Catcher Yan Gomes then drove a double into the gap in right-center field, scoring Santana and Chisenhall.
Cleveland made it 8-3 on an RBI triple by shortstop Francisco Lindor in the eighth inning.
The teams began the game by exchanging leadoff home runs. Gordon hit the first pitch of the game into the seats in right field for his 12th home run.
In the bottom of the first, Indians designated hitter Jason Kipnis hit a 1-2 pitch from Volquez over the wall in center field for his 12th home run.
Carrasco settled down after Gordon's home run, but Volquez continued to struggle after Kipnis' blast.
In the bottom of the third inning, Lindor drew a one out walk and stole second base. Brantley took a called third strike for the second out, and Santana drew a walk.
Chisenhall then bounced a double off the right field wall, scoring Lindor and giving Cleveland a 2-1 lead. The Indians added on with one out in the fourth inning, when third baseman Giovanny Urshela hit a 1-1 pitch from Volquez into the left field bleachers for his sixth home run, a solo shot.
The Indians scored again off Volquez in the fifth inning, when they used a walk and two singles to load the bases with no outs. However, could only squeeze one run out of that rally, which came on a sacrifice fly by Chisenhall.
NOTES: Indians 2B Jason Kipnis, who was leading the American League in hitting for much of the first half of the season, was hitting .130 in September (6-for-46) and .188 since Aug. 1 (19-for-101) after going 1-for-5 Monday. Manager Terry Francona said Kipnis has been bothered recently by a stiff neck. ... Cleveland has drawn a major=league-high 18 walks with the bases loaded, the most by an Indians team in 31 years. ... Through the weekend, the Royals led the majors with a team batting average of .278 with two outs. The major league average was .244. ... In his first four starts after being traded to the Royals, RHP Johnny Cueto was 2-1 with 1.80 ERA. In his past five starts, he is 0-5 with a 9.57 ERA.