With a 9-1 win, Indians dampen Royals title hopes
Jake Westbrook silenced Kansas City's bats with just four hits in six-plus innings.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The excitement of the Kansas City Royals' surprising run in the AL Central has been replaced by silence.
After staying in the pennant race with four straight wins, the Royals lost to the Cleveland Indians 9-1 on Wednesday night to fall 41/2 games behind Minnesota with 11 games remaining.
"Every time we lose, it's quiet in here," Royals starter Paul Abbott said. "It's a somber mood. However, if we win [tonight], we win the series. Our mind-set is to win every series and to go from there."
Jake Westbrook scattered four hits over six-plus innings, and Travis Hafner and Alex Escobar homered as the Indians ended a four-game losing streak.
Jody Gerut hit a two-run single, and Jhonny Peralta also drove in two runs for Cleveland.
Allows just one run
Westbrook (7-9) allowed one run and struck out four in 61/3 innings. All of his outs were either on groundouts or strikeouts. He shut down a Royals lineup that averaged nine runs per game during their winning streak.
Westbrook is 1-1 with a 1.49 ERA in nine outings against Kansas City.
"I don't know what it is. I can't put it on one certain thing," Westbrook said. "I guess I match up well against them. I'm aggressive and go after guys. I can't explain it."
Abbott (1-2) gave up four runs on six hits in five innings.
"It's frustrating because three of those runs were with two outs," Abbott said. "You want to make sure you finish those innings. I tried to stay aggressive. Maybe I was too aggressive."
After Abbott left, Kansas City's bullpen allowed five runs -- three unearned.
The Royals had an opportunity for a big inning in the seventh, but got just one run.
Raul Ibanez led off with a double, and Aaron Guiel hit a one-out RBI double to snap Westbrook's scoreless innings streak at 10. Westbrook left after walking Ken Harvey.
Reliever Jack Cressend gave up a single to Desi Relaford to load the bases, but pinch-hitter Mike Sweeney hit into an inning-ending double play.
Errors costly
Kansas City made two errors in seventh, allowing Cleveland to score three runs. Escobar singled and Victor Martinez hit a soft grounder to second, but Relaford flipped the ball past shortstop Angel Berroa and it went into center field.
Reliever Kris Wilson bobbled a grounder in front of the mound to load the bases, then gave up three runs on a single, a hit batter and a sacrifice fly to make it 9-1.
The Indians scored 23 runs in their last three games, going 1-2.
"We're making the pitcher work harder and we're doing it more consistently," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We did the last two games, but it didn't show up in wins. But we carried it over to tonight and it worked out for us."
Martinez's two-out RBI single in the first gave Cleveland a 1-0 lead.
Hafner hit his 13th homer in the third to make it 3-0.
Escobar homered in the fifth, his second in as many nights and fifth overall.