The Cleveland Indians even their weekend series with Kansas City, downing the Royals 9-4 Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium.
Cleveland jumped out to an early lead, batting around in the top of the 1st inning, scoring 5 runs on 6 hits before Kansas City came to bat in the 1st inning. Lead off batter Grady Sizemore doubled and came home on Asdrubal Cabrera’s single. The Tribe’s second run was scored by Travis Hafner, who had walked, on a Victor Martinez double. Martinez then scored the third run on Jhonny Peralta’s base hit. Runs four and five, Peralta and Kenny Lofton, came home on a double by Franklin Gutierrez, Cleveland’s third double of the inning.
In the 2nd, the Indians picked up where they left off in the 1st. Sizemore, who had led off the 1st inning with a double, led off the 2nd with a 394 foot home run to center field. The Tribe picked up the inning’s second run on the inning’s second homer, a 355 foot blast to right field launched by Victor Martinez.
The Royals kept the Indians off the scoreboard in the 3rd and 4th innings, but Cleveland picked up run number 8 in the 5th. Kenny Lofton, who had doubled for his third hit and second double of the night, scored on a Casey Baker single.
Kansas City finally broke through in the bottom of the 5th inning with 4 singles that produced a pair of runs.
The Indians scored once more in the top of the 9th, thanks to a pair of doubles, Cleveland’s 16th and 17th hits of the game.
In the bottom of the 9th, the Royals scored a couple of runs to make the score 9-4, but that was all the scoring they could muster.
Indians’ starter Aaron Laffey (2-1) pitched 6 innings for the win, allowing 2 earned runs on 8 hits. Kansas City starter Kyle Davies (1-2), who was chased after giving up 7 runs, all earned, on 8 hits in just 2 innings, took the loss.
The Royals (57-71) and Indians (71-57) play the rubber game of their weekend series Sunday afternoon at the K. Gil Meche (7-11) goes to the mound for Kansas City against Cleveland’s Fausto Carmona (14-8).
Download/Listen: Manager Buddy Bell’s post game comments (1:30 MP3)
