Cabrera rallies Tribe past Royals bullpen

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

Asdrubal Cabrera drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, and the Cleveland Indians rallied against the stingy Kansas City Royals bullpen for a 5-3 victory Tuesday night.

The Indians were shut out until the sixth by Yordano Ventura, who made an electric major league debut. They tied the game 3-all in the seventh off reliever Kelvin Herrera, and Cabrera’s double off Wade Davis (7-11) in the eighth scored Drew Stubbs and gave Cleveland the lead.

Michael Bourn added a homer in the ninth to provide a cushion.

Meanwhile, Cody Allen (6-1) was among six Indians relievers who kept Kansas City off the scoreboard the final 41/3 innings. Chris Perez handled a perfect ninth for his 25th save.

The win allowed the Indians to remain a half-game back of Texas and Tampa Bay in the AL wild-card race. The Royals are 31/2 games adrift after the Rangers beat the Rays earlier in the night.

Ventura has already been saddled with the nickname “Ace” before Monday night, but in the first inning he looked more like a different film character: Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn.

He erratically walked Bourn on four pitches to lead off the game, and earned a roar when he finally threw a strike to Nick Swisher. The roar grew when Ventura got him to ground into a double play, and reached a crescendo when he struck out Jason Kipnis to end the inning.

The 22-year-old flame-thrower settled in after that, mixing his curveball and changeup with straight gas that touched 101 mph on the radar gun at Kauffman Stadium.

The Royals gave him a lead on Hosmer’s double in the first inning. They added two more in the third, thanks in large part to Emilio Bonifacio getting into the head of starter Corey Kluber.

After a single, Bonifacio swiped second even as Kluber tried to pick him off. Bonifacio kept dancing around second base, and the Indians right-hander proceeded to walk Hosmer and Billy Butler to load up the bases. Salvador Perez’s sacrifice fly and Mike Moustakas’s double made it 3-0.