CLEVELAND (AP) — As Omar Infante prepared for a postgame TV interview, teammate Salvador Perez dumped a bucket of Gatorade over his head, soaking Kansas City’s second baseman to the bone.

Well, that finally cooled him off.

Infante drove in a career-high seven runs and the Royals overcame some early sloppiness for an 8-4 win over the Cleveland Indians on Thursday night.

A veteran infielder making his first start in 11 days, Infante hit a three-run homer in the second inning off Corey Kluber (8-14), added a two-run double in the fifth after the Indians pulled their ace and hit a two-run single in the seventh.

Infante also had a sacrifice and nearly matched the offensive output of teammate Mike Moustakas, who set a team record with nine RBI on Saturday against Baltimore. Needing a triple to hit for the cycle, Infante lined out to center field in the ninth.

Afterward, he treated his big night like it was nothing unusual.

“I’m grateful for the chance to play,” Infante said. “It felt good.”

Yordana Ventura (12-8) went five innings, retiring struggling All-Star Jason Kipnis with the bases loaded to end the fifth as the AL Central-leading Royals, who had three errors in the first three innings and four overall, split the four-game series. Kansas City won for just the fourth time in 13 games.

Infante has hit two homers this season — both in Cleveland.

“I get lucky in this park,” he said, laughing. “I put some good swings on the ball here.”

The Indians didn’t make up any more ground in the wild-card race. They came in trailing Houston by four games for the second spot.

Cleveland loaded the bases in the ninth, prompting Royals manager Ned Yost to bring in closer Greg Holland, who gave up a sacrifice fly but got his 32nd save.

Kluber started for the first time since Aug. 29 after being sidelined with a hamstring injury. The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner allowed two runs and five hits in four innings, settling in after Infante’s homer.

But as soon as Kluber left, the Royals pounced on left-handed reliever Kyle Crockett, who gave up Eric Hosmer’s RBI double that put Kansas City up 4-2. Jeff Manship came on for Cleveland but walked Alex Rios, and Infante followed with his double to make it 6-2.

Infante’s second double pushed Kansas City’s lead to 8-3 in the seventh.

“We just made some mistakes to Infante tonight,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “When we got it where we needed to we were OK, but when we didn’t he killed us.”

With a large lead in the division, the Royals have been on cruise control lately and not playing as well as they did earlier in the season.

They didn’t start out smoothly in the series finale, committing three errors — two on pretty routine grounders — in the first three innings.

“We didn’t play great baseball tonight,” Yost said. “We swung the bats, but defensively we had some lapses. We’ve got to get this little streak turned around and get back to playing good baseball.”

Kluber’s return was surprisingly short.

On Wednesday, Francona joked that he might limit the right-hander to “140-150” pitches, but wound up pulling Kluber after 61.

Infante’s second homer of the season gave the Royals a 3-0 lead in the second.

Salvador Perez led off with a routine grounder, but reached safely on third baseman Giovanny Urshela’s throwing error. Rios singled before Infante turned on a 1-0 fastball, driving it onto the home run porch in left. His other homer came in Cleveland on July 27.

HOT HOSMER

Hosmer went 1 for 5 but is batting .359 (23 for 64) with 20 RBI this season against the Indians.

PEREZ’S SHOULDER

Perez was struck on the right shoulder by a wicked foul tip off Urshela’s bat in the fourth inning. Kansas City’s All-Star catcher stayed in the game, but later took a shot off the chest protector and was replaced in the ninth.

“It might have killed you and me, but he’s a tough guy,” Yost said.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals OF Lorenzo Cain got the night off after going 0 for 4 on Wednesday. He’s been slowed by an assortment of nagging injuries, and those coupled with a .192 career average against Kluber kept Cain on the bench.

UP NEXT

Royals: RHP Johnny Cueto has dropped five straight starts for the first time in his career. He’ll start the series opener in Detroit. The first inning has been an issue for Cueto, who has been touched for a combined seven runs and 10 hits in the first over his past three outings.

Indians: RHP Cody Anderson opens a three-game series against the White Sox. He’s won back-to-back starts for the first time after defeating Detroit in his previous outing.

— Associated Press —

CLEVELAND (AP) — While Francisco Lindor makes a late run for AL Rookie of the Year, he might be accomplishing something even more important for the Cleveland Indians.

“He keeps getting better and better,” manager Terry Francona said. “He’s impacting games almost every night.”

Lindor was 3 for 4 with a home run and four RBI, and also made an outstanding defensive play at shortstop to help the Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 5-1 Wednesday night.

The win also helped Cleveland remain in contention for the Amercan League’s second wild-card spot.

“It’s fun to watch,” Francona said. “For him to impact games the way he has is pretty special.”

Lindor downplayed his night, saying, “It felt great. We won. That’s the biggest thing.”

Danny Salazar (13-8) took a three-hit shutout into the seventh before Mike Moustakas started the inning with a home run. The right-hander allowed one run and struck out six in seven innings as the Indians (72-72) got back to .500.

Danny Duffy (7-8) allowed four runs in 2 1/3 innings for Kansas City, which has dropped nine of 12.

Lindor, who matched his career high in hits and RBI, had a solo homer in the first for his 100th hit since being called up from the minors on June 14. He added a two-run single in the second and an RBI single in the fourth, but the moment that meant the most to him may have come the following inning.

Lindor impacted the game defensively in the fifth. He dove to his left to come up with Alex Rios’ ground ball and made a one-hop throw to first from his knees for the out. He showed his ever-present smile after the play as he watched the scoreboard replay.

“It looked great,” he said. “I’ve never been a fan of a guy who makes a great play and acts like he’s done it 10,000 times. Smile, man. That’s what we play for.”

Duffy was impressed.

“I honestly think Lindor has already arrived,” he said. He’s going to be a heck of a player.”

Lindor drove a 1-0 pitch several rows deep in the left-field bleachers in the first. Following Jason Kipnis’ RBI single in the second, the switch-hitter punched a hit through the right side for a 4-0 lead.

Lindor’s first two hits came from the right side against the left-handed Duffy. His fourth-inning single was off right-hander Jeremy Guthrie. Lindor, 21, was Cleveland’s first draft pick in 2011, No. 8 overall. He began the season at Triple-A Columbus.

Cleveland is four games behind Houston, but also trailed Minnesota and Los Angeles in the wild-card race.

Kansas City was a season-high 31 games over .500 (82-51) on Sept. 3 before its recent rough stretch. The Royals were still 10 games ahead of Minnesota in the AL Central.

HOW MANY?

Reigning AL Cy Young winner Corey Kluber, who has been out since late August with a strained hamstring, will start against the Royals on Thursday. Asked if Kluber will be on a pitch count, Francona joked, “Yeah, probably 140-150.” Francona then said there won’t be a fixed number of pitches for the right-hander.

HEARD IT THIS TIME

A Progressive Field technician mistakenly set off fireworks when Rios homered Tuesday night. Francona said the explosion shocked him a little and then admitted he’d never heard the fireworks go off when an Indians player hit a home run.

“I did (hear it),” Francona said of the fireworks after Lindor’s homer. I kind of checked it out.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: OF Lorenzo Cain was in the lineup after being removed in the ninth inning Tuesday. He was hit on the leg by a pitch earlier in the game and twisted his ankle Monday.

UP NEXT

Royals: RHP Yordano Ventura has won three of his last four road starts, raising his season mark in away games to 4-3 with a 5.15 ERA.

Indians: RHP Corey Kluber returns to the mound for the first time since Aug. 29. He’s 1/3 in four starts this season against the Royals.

— Associated Press —

CLEVELAND (AP) — The spark came from Alex Rios. The sparklers were courtesy of the Indians.

Kansas City’s Kris Medlen allowed five hits over 6 1/3 innings and Rios connected for a home run off Josh Tomlin that launched some unintentional fireworks, leading the Royals to a 2-0 win over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night.

Medlen (4-1) shut out the Indians before Royals manager Ned Yost turned things over to his top-ranked bullpen. Ryan Madson struck out two in the seventh, Wade Davis got through the eighth and Greg Holland worked around a two-on, no-out mess he created in the ninth for his 31st save.

The Royals won for just the third time in 11 games and moved a little closer to wrapping up an AL Central title.

Rios put the Royals ahead 2-0 with two outs in the fifth off Tomlin (5-2) by hitting his fourth homer, a shot onto the pedestrian patio in left that prompted an accidental celebration in Progressive Field. As Rios rounded first, fireworks exploded above the ballpark, a tradition usually reserved for any homer hit by an Indians player.

TV cameras caught the distraught fireworks technician with his hands clutching his head after his quick-trigger mistake, which prompted a chorus of boos from the small crowd.

“It was nice,” Rios joked about the unexpected explosion. “It’s the first time that’s happened to me in a road game. When I heard all the screams, it crossed my mind that they somehow called it foul. It shook me a little bit. It caught me off-guard. When I was rounding second, I heard people screaming and that’s when I thought something happened, but it’s all good.”

The Indians, who pulled back to .500 for just the second time since April by winning the series opener, fell to 13-6 since Aug. 25.

It was a hard-luck loss for Tomlin, who had won his previous five starts. The right-hander gave up two runs and four hits in his second complete game this month. After giving Rios’ homer, Tomlin retired 13 of 14.

Tomlin didn’t take any satisfaction in his strong outing.

“It doesn’t feel good,” he said. “I’m glad I was able to keep the team in the game, don’t get me wrong, but we need wins, and that’s the bottom line. It doesn’t matter how well I pitch, if their guy does better than me on the other side then it’s still a loss. And that’s not what we need right now.”

Medlen, who was making just his fifth start since bouncing over from the bullpen last month, improved to 3-0 on the road. The right-hander missed all of last season following Tommy John surgery.

“We needed that,” Yost said. “We needed a good pitching performance. We needed to get to the bullpen in the seventh inning with the lead and that’s exactly what Kris provided for us.”

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the second on Perez’s RBI single after the Indians failed to catch Mike Moustaskas’ foul pop behind the plate with two outs.

Catcher Yan Gomes yanked off his mask and looked skyward but couldn’t locate the high pop, which fell untouched about 15 feet from the batter’s box as Tomlin and third baseman Giovanny Urshela helplessly looked on. Moustakas made the Indians pay by following with a double off the center-field wall and scored on Perez’s clutch hit.

The Royals entered batting .280 with two outs — 37 points higher than the major league average.

HOLLAND’S HEALTH

Yost went to the mound with a trainer in the ninth to check on Holland, whose velocity has noticeably dropped.

“There’s a little bit of concern there,” Yost said. “You have to look at a closer’s mentality. He has that. He’s got the heart of a lion.”

Yost said Holland was surprised by the visit, and told his manager, “I got this. I’m fine.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Indians: Ace Corey Kluber has been cleared to start Thursday’s series finale against Yordano Ventura after being sidelined with a right hamstring injury. Kluber did some infield drills before Tuesday’s game and was cleared by Cleveland’s medical staff. The reigning Cy Young Award winner has been out since Aug. 29.

UP NEXT

Royals: LHP Danny Duffy had his shortest outing this season against the Indians, who knocked him out with a four-run first inning on May 6. Duffy is allowing lefties to hit just .132 against him in his last 10 starts.

Indians: RHP Danny Salazar will make his third start this season against the first-place Royals. He’s 1-1 with a 5.54 ERA. In his last start, Salazar surpassed 175 strikeouts, the third Cleveland pitcher to reach that plateau in 2015.

— Associated Press —