Indians defeat Royals, close gap in division
CLEVELAND -- Danny Salazar pitched eight innings, allowing one run on three hits, and rookie Tyler Naquin hit his first major league home run as the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 6-1 Friday night at Progressive Field.
Yan Gomes also homered for the second-place Indians, who have won the first two games of the four-game series to move to within 1/2 game of the first-place Royals in the AL Central.
Salazar (6-3) gave up one run on three hits with nine strikeouts and five walks.
With the Indians leading 4-1, the left-handed hitting Naquin, the Indians' first-round pick in the 2012 June Draft, hit a 3-1 pitch from Royals starter Edinson Volquez (5-5) over the left-field wall for his first major league home run.
Naquin's homer gave the Indians a 5-1 lead and that was plenty for Salazar, who held the Royals in check for most of the night.
Volquez was removed from the game later in the seventh inning. In 6 1/3 innings, he gave up five runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and four walks.
Salazar gave up a solo home run to Drew Butera in the third inning, then held Kansas City scoreless over his last five innings. The only other Royals hits besides Butera's home run were a single by Alcides Escobar in the sixth inning and a single by Cheslor Cuthbert in the seventh.
The Indians scored their final run in the eighth inning when Jose Ramirez doubled off Chien-Ming Wang, stole third and scored on a throwing error by catcher Butera.
Cleveland scored first, on a solo home run by Yan Gomes with two outs in the second inning off Volquez, giving the Indians a 1-0 lead.
The Royals got that run back in the top of the third on Butera's second home run of the season off Salazar. Butera has homered in each of the first two games of the series.
In eight career starts vs. Cleveland coming into the game, Volquez had a record of 2-5 and an 8.31 ERA. The Indians added to that ERA with a three-run, four-hit third inning that was helped along by two wild pitches.
Volquez retired the first batter of the inning, but the Indians then strung together four consecutive hits. Jason Kipnis started it by driving a double into the gap in left-center field. Kipnis went to third on a wild pitch and he scored on a single to center by Francisco Lindor, giving the Indians a 2-1 lead.
Mike Napoli followed with a double off the wall in left field, scoring Lindor to make it 3-1. Napoli advanced to third on a single by Jose Ramirez, and Napoli scored on Volquez's second wild pitch of the inning, extending the Indians' lead to 4-1.
NOTES: The Indians have played 53 games, which means OF Abraham Almonte has 27 more games left in his 80-game suspension for a positive test in spring training for performance-enhancing drugs. ... Indians 1B Mike Napoli, who ranks in the top 10 in the American League in home runs (12) and RBIs (39), has 30 RBIs at Progressive Field, the third-most home RBIs in the majors behind Boston's Mookie Betts and David Ortiz (30 each). ... Royals C Salvador Perez, who hasn't played since suffering a quad contusion on May 28, will likely start a game during the weekend series in Cleveland, manager Ned Yost said. ... Royals relievers entered Friday's game having not allowed a home run in their last 99 innings dating to May 4 when Washington's Bryce Harper homered off RHP Dillon Gee.