Monday, August 30, 2010
Associated Press
CLEVELAND
Bruce Chen and Kila Ka’aihue stayed aggressive, and the Kansas City Royals kept ahead of Cleveland in their race to escape last place.
Ka’aihue hit a go-ahead double in the seventh inning to help Chen and the Royals beat the Cleveland Indians 6-2 Sunday.
Manager Ned Yost got his 500th career win in the majors. The Royals are 43-52 since Yost replaced Trey Hillman on May 14.
“Chen was on the attack, getting after it,” Yost said. “He stayed ahead of hitters, changed speeds and threw them off-balance. He’s capable of doing that whenever he goes out there.”
The 33-year-old left-hander, with his 10th major league team since 1998, allowed two runs and six hits over six innings.
“I was mixing different arm angles and getting ahead in the count,” said Chen (9-7). “It all felt good.”
The Royals avoided a three-game sweep and pulled two games ahead of last-place Cleveland in the AL Central. Kansas City is 5-17 on the road since July 8.
Mike Aviles blooped a one-out single off Fausto Carmona (11-13) and scored on Ka’aihue’s drive into the left-center gap to put the Royals ahead 3-2.
“Carmona kept throwing the sinker away all day and was pretty tough,” Ka’aihue said. “I just looked for him to get one up in the zone. I wanted to be aggressive if he did. Everything came together from there.”
Mitch Maier and Brayan Pena each had two RBIs for Kansas City, which also got a ninth-inning run on a wild throw by shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, his first error in 34 games since July 21.
Joakim Soria struck out the side in the ninth in a non-save situation. The right-hander has 36 saves in 38 chances and a team-record 28 straight, but had not worked since Wednesday.
Cleveland’s final seven batters all struck out.
Jesse Chavez pitched a scoreless seventh, throwing a called third strike past pinch-hitter Michael Brantley with runners on second and third to end it. Blake Wood struck out the side in a perfect eighth.
“The bullpen did a terrific job,” Chen said. “Soria is the master. Who knows where we’d be without him.”
Carmona lost a career-high fifth straight start as the Indians had a three-game winning streak snapped.