Choo homers 3 times; Bucs snap 4-game skid

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

Shin-Soo Choo hit three homers, including a grand slam, and the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 11-4 on Friday night.

Choo finished with a career-best seven RBIs as Cleveland moved out of the AL Central basement, taking a half-game lead over the Royals. Lou Marson also drove in three runs.

Mike Aviles and Billy Butler hit consecutive homers in the sixth for Kansas City, which has lost 10 of 14. Butler went 4 for 4 and Aviles had three hits.

Choo hit a two-run shot off Kyle Davies (8-10) in Cleveland’s four-run second inning and connected against Bryan Bullington in the sixth for his third career slam, making it 9-0.

The right fielder capped his sixth career multi-homer game and first with three with a solo drive off rookie Greg Holland in the eighth. The shot gave him 19 homers and 79 RBIs on the season.

Pirates 4, Diamondbacks 3

PITTSBURGH

Ronny Cedeno’s single in the bottom of the ninth scored Andrew McCutchen and Pittsburgh snapped a four-game losing streak.

Cedeno’s soft line drive to right-center off Esmerling Vasquez (1-6) came after two one-out walks to McCutchen and Ryan Doumit. McCutchen was pinch-hitting after being scratched from the lineup about 30 minutes before game time due to a stomach ailment.

Pittsburgh had lost seven of eight and avoided their ninth five-game losing streak of the season.

Ian Kennedy was impressive for a fourth consecutive start and Geraldo Parra had two RBI doubles for the Diamondbacks, who have lost 10 of 13.

Kennedy was in line for the win when he exited after allowing two runs (one earned) in six innings, but Doumit tied it with a solo homer, his 13th, off Blaine Boyer with one out in the seventh.

Neil Walker also homered for the Pirates, who are a majors-worst 49-98 but have won seven of their past 11 at home. Walker, Cedeno and Jose Tabata each went 2 for 4 with an RBI.