Santana leads Indians’ rout of KC

Photo by: Orlin Wagner

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Cleveland Indians' Asdrubal Cabrera bunts during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, May 17, 2011. The bunt advanced teammate Michael Brantley to third base.

By Paul Hoynes

Cleveland Plain Dealer

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

Catcher Carlos Santana, the cleanup hitter disguised as a walk, is starting to do something different. Sure he walked Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium, but he swung the bat as well.

Santana singled, homered and scored two runs as the Indians completed a two-game sweep of Kansas City with a 7-3 victory. In the sweep, the Indians outscored the Royals, 26-4.

It’s not unusual for cleanup hitters to draw a lot of walks. It is unusual for a cleanup hitter to be batting .222 — Santana’s average at the start of the game — while leading the team in walks. It is one of the reasons manager Manny Acta has kept Santana in the middle of the lineup.

Acta figured Santana’s good eye would eventually turn those walks into hits.

Santana walked in the first inning against Sean O’Sullivan (2-3, 4.68) to increase his team lead to 28. He raced home on Travis Hafner’s three-run double down the right-field line for a 3-0 lead. It was Hafner’s second three-run double in as many days and gave him six RBIs in the sweep.

Santana was in perfect position to draw another walk in the fifth. The count was 3-1, but instead he drove a ball over the right-field fence for a 5-1 lead. It was his sixth homer, five coming from the left side of the plate.

Santana added a single in the seventh.

On defense, Santana guided Carlos Carrasco (2-2, 5.03) to his first victory since April 8. Carrasco allowed two runs on five hits in 51/3 innings. He struck out five, walked two and threw 97 pitches.

In the sixth, Santana took the steam out of a Royals rally by throwing out rookie Eric Hosmer on an attempted steal of second. Second baseman Orlando Cabrera assisted with a nice pick and tag on the short hop. He ended the seventh, as another Royals rally started to percolate, by picking off Matt Treanor at second with a strong throw.

Michael Brantley started the game with a double to the right-field fence. Asdrubal Cabrera bunted him to third and Shin-Soo Choo was hit by a pitch. After Santana’s walk loaded the bases, Hafner unloaded them.

From there, the top-scoring offense in the AL wore down O’Sullivan and the Royals as they stretched the lead to 6-1.

Brantley’s sacrifice fly in the fourth made it 4-1. Orlando Cabrera started the inning with a single and worked his way to third on Matt LaPorta’s walk and Jack Hannahan’s single to load the bases.

They added two more runs in the fifth on Santana’s homer and Travis Buck’s RBI single.