KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Nori Aoki singled home Lorenzo Cain in the 14th inning to lift the Kansas City Royals to a 2-1 win over Cleveland after Indians starter Corey Kluber carried a perfect game into the seventh inning on Thursday night.

Cain opened the 14th with an infield single and stole second before Aoki delivered the winning hit off John Axford on a full-count pitch with one out.

Aaron Crow (5-1), the seventh Kansas City pitcher, earned the victory — striking out the side in a perfect 14th.

Left-hander Marc Rzepcynski (0-3), who gave up the hit to Cain, took the loss.

Kluber held the Royals to two hits, retiring the first 19 batters he faced before Omar Infante, who was in a 0-for-16 skid, lined a single to center with one out in the seventh.

Mike Moustakas doubled and scored on a throwing error by left fielder Ryan Raburn in the eighth inning to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. Moustakas hit a fly ball down the left-field line that Raburn nearly caught. When Raburn tracked down the ball in foul territory, he spiked a throw that rolled into center field.

The Indians tied it in the ninth off Greg Holland, who blew his second save in 28 chances. Holland walked Carlos Santana leading off the inning, and pinch-hitter Chris Dickerson bunted him to second. Gomes’ two-out single to center scored Santana.

After Infante’s hit, Kluber got out of the inning when Alex Gordon struck out, and Infante was thrown out trying to steal second.

Kluber, who allowed only one unearned run in nine innings, struck out 10 and walked none.

Royals starter Danny Duffy, who was 1-5 in his previous six starts, gave up two singles — both to Santana — in seven scoreless innings. Duffy, who also walked two, was pulled after 108 pitches.

Duffy lowered his earned run average to 2.47. He is the only American League pitcher with a losing record with an ERA less than three.

Wade Davis, who replaced Duffy, pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth. With one out, he permitted singles to Jose Ramirez and pinch-hitter David Murphy sandwiched around a walk to Jason Kipnis. Davis then got Michael Brantley to ground into an inning-ending double play.

— Associated Press —

CHICAGO (AP) — It took a hard slide for the Kansas City Royals to end their skid.

Mike Moustakas scored the tie-breaking run when he jarred the ball out of the catcher’s glove in the ninth inning and the Royals beat the White Sox 2-1 Wednesday to take the three-game series.

Kansas City was victorious for the 12th time in their last 14 starts at U.S. Cellular Field. They also won consecutive games for the first time since July 2-4. They are 5-10 since then.

“I feel a lot better leaving Chicago than I did after the first game in Chicago,” manager Ned Yost said. “After the problems you run into, you can’t lose faith. You can’t start panicking. You can’t think the ship is sinking. You’ve got to stay positive, because these guys have the ability to fight through it and get themselves out of it.”

Moustakas triggered the decisive rally with a lead-off single off Zach Putnam (3-2), the last of four White Sox pitchers. Alcides Escobar bunted him over before Nori Aoki hit a flare to center field.

Adam Eaton’s strong throw beat Moustakas to the plate, but catcher Tyler Flowers lost control of the ball upon contact. Flowers was charged with an error on the play.

“With the (new) rules, you kind of have to obey them,” said Moustakas, who was at a four-inch, 30-pound disadvantage in the matchup. “You don’t really think about trying to truck anybody. That’s a big boy behind home plate there. It’s probably not a good idea to go that route.”

Flowers said he thought he had the ball.

“The replay looked like his knee on impact was literally straight into the webbing of the glove,” Flowers said. “I wish I could have hung onto it, but there’s nothing I could do different.”

Yost liked the jump off second base as much as the slide itself.

“(Moustakas) got a tremendous read on Nori’s base hit,” Yost said. “If he doesn’t get the read that he had, he doesn’t have the opportunity to score.”

Wade Davis (6-2) pitched one scoreless inning and Greg Holland retired the side in order in the ninth inning for his 26th save in 27 tries.

After the teams traded runs in the first inning, starters James Shields and Jose Quintana matched each other for six scoreless innings. Neither was overwhelming, but both were able to get key outs when necessary.

“(Shields) has the ability to make big pitches in crucial situations,” Yost said. “That’s why he’s our ace.”

Shields allowed six hits in seven innings He walked one batter and struck out seven.

“I just try to go out there every five days and pitch my game no matter where I’m at,” Shields said.

In seven innings, Quintana gave up seven hits and two walks and struck out three batters. He remained winless (0-5) against the Royals in 11 career starts.

The no decision was the 36th for Quintana since the 2012 season, the most in the majors.

Chicago’s Adam Dunn singled to tie the score at 1-1 in the first inning. The hit scored Jose Abreu, who had doubled with two outs. Abreu (sore back) was back in action after a one-game layoff.

Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice fly gave the Royals a 1-0 lead.

— Associated Press —

CHICAGO (AP) — When the Chicago White Sox scheduled Greek Heritage Night for Tuesday, they probably didn’t consider that Mike Moustakas would be in the visiting dugout.

Moustakas put a capper on the festivities by homering twice to help the Kansas City Royals snap a four-game losing streak with a 7-1 rout.

Afterward, Moustakas was asked if he was aware of the promotion.

“Oh, I knew,” he said. “I was telling everybody that today was my day. It just ended up working out that way.”

Moustakas, who has 12 homers this season, went 3 for 5 with three RBIs. He raised his batting average to .198

The Royals entered the game with a major league-worst 55 homers and had managed a total of six runs during the losing streak.

“He’s starting to swing the bat pretty good,” manager Ned Yost said of Moustakas. “We’ve seen him in spurts, it doesn’t matter who’s pitching. When he’s right, he’s putting good swings on the ball.

“Tonight he was really seeing the ball good, he was in a good position to hit and he was really driving the ball.”

Bruce Chen (2-2) allowed one run and five hits in five innings to get the win.

Chen has 82 career victories to tie former New York Yankees great Mariano Rivera for the most wins by a Panamanian.

“For me, he’s one of the best pitchers to ever pitch in the big leagues and to tie him for most wins by a Panamanian really means a lot to me, and my family is very happy,” Chen said.

Adam Dunn went 2 for 4 with a solo homer for the White Sox, who had won three of four.

Chicago starter Scott Carroll (4-6) allowed five runs and 11 hits in five-plus innings.

“I thought I was just rusty; that’s kind of the way I felt,” Carroll said. “Overall, I just didn’t think I had my best stuff. But I have to be better, the sixth inning is what really got me. Up until that point I just felt rusty.”

The Royals had a players-only meeting before the game and needed a good start. Moustakas provided it when he led off the second with a long homer to right field to make it 1-0. The White Sox tied it when Dunn led off the fourth with a homer to left.

The Royals broke the game open with a four-run sixth inning thanks to some timely hits — another missing element during the losing streak — and White Sox miscues.

Billy Butler led off with a double and the next batter, Raul Ibanez, drove him in with a double to make it 2-1. Alcides Escobar followed with an infield hit to put runners on first and third, and Ibanez scored on a passed ball as Nori Aoki walked for a 3-1 lead.

That was all for Carroll as Javy Guerra entered.

Guerra, though, immediately dug a deeper hole with his defense. With runners on first and second, Jarrod Dyson bunted back to the vicinity of the mound. Guerra fielded the ball cleanly, but his throw to first base was wild and sailed by second baseman Gordon Beckham and down the right field line, allowing Escobar to score on the throwing error.

The Royals capped the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly by Omar Infante to make it 5-1.

“The tack-on runs were huge for us right there,” Yost said.

Moustakas added a two-run homer in the eighth.

— Associated Press —