A.L. CENTRAL Tribe drops Royals further back

Kansas City is 41/2 games behind the White Sox with 19 to play.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- This was supposed to be the start of a late surge for the Kansas City Royals, a reversal of their 10-day tumble from first to third in the AL Central.
Nobody told the Cleveland Indians, who came into Kauffman Stadium on a six-game skid and with just three wins in 13 meetings with the Royals this season.
Now, first place is even farther away for Kansas City.
With their 7-1 loss to Cleveland and first-place Chicago's 8-6 victory over second-place Minnesota on Tuesday night, the Royals are 41/2 games behind the White Sox with 19 games to go.
The Royals lost for the eighth time in their last 11 games despite out-hitting the Indians 11-10.
"It's really frustrating," first baseman Ken Harvey said. "You get that many hits, you expect to win. But we were getting all of our hits with two outs, and you can't get anything started that way."
Relied on fastball
Right-hander Jason Davis, coming back from stiffness that kept him off the mound since Aug. 16, relied on his fastball to give Cleveland five shutout innings.
After that, the Indians turned Angel Berroa's error into a five-run sixth inning, capped by Victor Martinez's three-run home run -- only his second career homer -- for a 6-0 lead.
"It feels great to get back out there again," Davis said. "I feel needed, you know?"
Davis (8-10) allowed five hits, all singles, over five innings on the way to his first win since June 29.
"He had some good life on his fastball," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "I wanted to keep him around 70 pitches, and he threw 66, so that was right where we wanted him to be."
All five of Cleveland's sixth-inning runs were unearned, the result of a rare fielding error by Berroa that undid Jimmy Gobble's strong start.
Gobble (3-4) gave up just one hit through 5 2-3 innings and was on his way to a perfect sixth when Berroa -- who had just two errors in his previous 75 games -- misplayed Casey Blake's grounder to deep shortstop.
Berroa thought the play should have been scored a hit.
"It was a difficult play to make," he said. "I had to take two steps to my right and try to backhand the ball. The ball did something at the last minute, and it hit off the heel of my glove -- almost hit my hand."
Gobble then hit Jody Gerut with a pitch, and Alex Escobar and Ben Broussard followed with RBI singles before Martinez homered into the left-field bullpen.
The Indians opened the scoring in the first on Coco Crisp's leadoff triple and Blake's sacrifice fly. After Crisp's hit, Gobble retired the next 11 batters before walking Escobar with two out in the fourth.
Yields to Carrasco
Gobble gave up four hits in six innings, striking out two and walking five before D.J. Carrasco relieved him to start the sixth.
"It's tough on the stomach, yeah," said Gobble, 1-4 since starting his major league career with two straight wins. "I went out there and pitched all right, I thought ... but I really needed to bear down in certain situations, and I didn't do it."
Travis Hafner had a pinch-hit sacrifice fly off Carrasco in the eighth.