Hafner, Valbuena power Tribe past Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Travis Hafner and Luis Valbuena each hit three-run homers, powering Cleveland past the hapless Kansas City Royals 10-6 Monday night.

Hafner drove in four runs, tacking on an RBI double to sink the Royals even deeper into the AL Central basement.

The Royals took a 5-4 lead in the seventh on Yuniesky Betancourt’s sacrifice fly off Jeremy Sowers.

But Kansas City closer Joakim Soria (3-2), who does not usually come in before the ninth, started the eighth and gave up singles to Jhonny Peralta and Hafner before Valbuena hit a 1-1 pitch over the fence in right for a 7-5 lead.

Soria, an All-Star closer in 2008, blew his third save in 23 chances and Kansas City lost its fifth in a row.

Hafner, only four home runs away from breaking into Cleveland’s all-time top 10, drove Gil Meche’s 3-0 pitch 403 feet over the fence for a 3-0 lead in the fourth. After the Royals took a 4-3 lead in the fifth, Hafner’s RBI double scored Shin-Soo Choo, who had tripled.

Sowers (5-9) retired the first nine batters and had faced the minimum through four innings before giving up four runs in the fifth, including two on John Buck’s double. Brayan Pena walked leading off, then Alberto Callaspo singled and Mark Teahen had an RBI single ahead of Buck. Betancourt’s sacrifice fly put the Royals on top 4-3. He gave up five runs on six hits in seven innings, walking two and striking out two.

Meche went seven innings and allowed four runs for the third straight start.

Asdrubal Cabrera had a two-run double in the ninth and scored the 10th run on a double-play grounder.

Notes

With 158 home runs, Hafner is four away from Ken Keltner for 10th in Cleveland history. ... The Royals designated for assignment LHP Ron Mahay and purchased the contract of RHP Yasuhiko Yabuta from Triple-A Omaha. ... Cleveland LF Matt LaPorta made a terrific play on Mitch Maier’s pop fly in the third inning, sliding on his backside to catch the ball.