Jason Kipnis is leading the way for the Cleveland Indians’ injury-ravaged lineup.

Kipnis had three hits and two RBIs, Jose Lopez drove in three runs and Lonnie Chisenhall homered in his first at-bat after being recalled from the minors as reinforcement to help the Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 8-5 Monday.

“We can’t replace the guys we’ve lost, but we’re scoring some runs,” said Kipnis, who is 12 for 24 with six RBIs over his past six games.

Cleveland was without ailing 3-4-5 hitters Asdrubal Cabrera, Carlos Santana and Travis Hafner, but had 14 hits to snap a three-game losing streak.

“You’ve got to give it to these guys,” manager Manny Acta said. “They find a way. I was glad we cut off that streak. Guys like Kipnis do a pretty good job of putting things behind them. They just say, ‘Let’s go get ’em.'”

Josh Tomlin (2-2) gave up four runs and four hits in five innings. The right-hander had not pitched since May 7 due to right wrist tendinitis.

“I felt fine, like I could have kept going,” Tomlin said, adding that he understood the Indians’ cautious approach with him.

Kipnis had a two-run single in a five-run third against Nate Adcock (0-3) as the first-place Indians maintained a half-game lead in the AL Central over the Chicago White Sox. Cleveland had lost three in a row at Chicago over the weekend, allowing 35 runs.

“That series was kind of a train wreck for us,” Tomlin said. “We wanted to get back here and get a win.”

Chris Perez, at odds with booing fans 10 days ago, got a standing ovation as he worked a perfect ninth for his 17th save. His only blown save came on Opening Day.

“I feel great, confident,” Perez said. “I felt that way in spring training, too. That’s why Opening Day was a head-scratcher.”

Kansas City got a two-run homer from Eric Hosmer and a solo drive by Brayan Pena but lost for the eighth time in 12 games.

With the bases loaded and one out in the third, Kipnis sent a hard grounder through the middle for two runs and a 3-2 Indians lead. Lopez followed with a chopper off the plate for an RBI single. Third baseman Mike Moustakas had no play on Lopez, but caught Kipnis advancing too far around second. Second base umpire Dan Bellino ruled that Kipnis ducked under Moustakas’ tag and made it to third.

“He said he never saw him tag him,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Everybody else in the stadium saw it. I don’t know how he managed to miss it.”

Moustakas was certain he tagged Kipnis.

“(Bellino) might have been in a bad spot,” Moustakas said. “He couldn’t see anything. That was something we needed right there. He ends up scoring. We can’t have that.”

Kipnis’ escape act surprised Acta.

“I tell guys to make them throw the ball,” he said. “Chances of getting out of a rundown are small, but Kipnis is so athletic.”

Casey Kotchman’s RBI single made it 5-2 and finished Adcock.

Chisenhall, recalled from Triple-A Columbus when third baseman Jack Hannahan went on the disabled list before the game with a strained left calf, homered to open the third. Chisenhall went 2 for 4 as the designated hitter in place of Hafner, who missed his fifth game in a row with an inflamed right knee.

“Just to be back here is great and to have a pretty good day adds to it,” said Chisenhall, who hit .267 in 66 games as a rookie last year.

Hosmer’s sixth homer put the Royals ahead 2-0 in the second. It was his first homer in 104 at-bats, since connecting April 25 off Cleveland’s Ubaldo Jimenez. Twenty of Hosmer’s 25 career homers have been in road games.

Pena’s first homer, to start the fifth, closed Kansas City to 5-3. Jarrod Dyson followed with a triple into the right-field corner and scored when Kipnis’ relay throw from second bounced into the stands for an error.

Lopez’s RBI single off the left-field wall made it 6-4 in the bottom half before Dyson’s speed helped the Royals again in the seventh. He walked, stole second and scored on Alcides Escobar’s single to make it 6-5.

Michael Brantley and Lopez had RBIs in the bottom half to make it 8-5.

Adcock gave up four earned runs and six hits over 2 1/3 innings. After the game, he was sent back to Triple-A Omaha for the third time since April 28. Right-hander Vin Mazzaro was called up and will work in long relief.

— Associated Press —

Jeff Francoeur had a terrific weekend, and the notoriously streaky hitter hopes the rest of the Royals will follow his success.

Francoeur had two more hits on Sunday, including a go-ahead home run, and Kansas City beat the Baltimore Orioles 4-2.

Francoeur finished 7 for 12 in the three-game series. In his last 14 games, he is batting .379 with all five of his home runs this season, two of them on this trip to Baltimore.

“I think you’re starting to see us all kind of get in a groove, which I think we all thought we’d do this year sooner rather than later,” he said.

Kansas City won two consecutive games for the first time since a four-game winning streak from May 12-15.

“I think we knew it was time to kind of get going here,” Francoeur said.

Billy Butler also homered and Alcides Escobar had two hits. Butler had home runs in successive games for the Royals, but was happiest for Francoeur.

“Frenchie is going through one of the better stretches I’ve seen anybody go through. I hope he can sustain it,” Butler said.

Kansas City had superb relief pitching in the last two games. They limited the Orioles to four singles in 7 2/3 innings.

Tim Collins (2-0) was the winner with 1 1/3 perfect innings in relief of starter Luke Hochevar.

Collins, Kelvin Herrera, Jose Mijares, Aaron Crow and Jonathan Broxton combined to limit the Orioles to one hit in the final 4 1/3 innings. Broxton closed for his 10th save in 12 chances.

With two outs in the ninth, J.J. Hardy hit a short fly. Francoeur came in from right field and converged with second baseman Johnny Giavotella, who dropped the ball for an error that allowed Hardy to reach second. Nick Markakis struck out to end the game.

“We’ve got guys with some pretty electric stuff,” Butler said.

Baltimore’s Adam Jones, whose six-year, $85.5 million contract extension was officially announced before the game, extended his career-long hitting streak to 18 — longest in the majors this season — with a fifth-inning double.

The Orioles have lost five of seven.

Brian Matusz (4-5) had a three-game winning streak broken. He allowed three earned runs and seven hits in six innings.

Francoeur hit a leadoff home run in the sixth that put Kansas City ahead 3-2.

“He’s just hot right now, swinging the bat really well. He’s got a good eye for the plate, battles with two strikes. Fouls a lot of pitches off and makes the pitches work. He’s just hot and was able to connect,” Matusz said.

Butler hit a long, arcing home run to left field in the first off Matusz. The Orioles tied it in the bottom half on a single by Hardy and an RBI double by Markakis.

In the second, Francoeur hit a sinking liner to center field that Jones mishandled. It was ruled a single and an error. With one out, Escobar lined a ball off second baseman Robert Andino’s glove for a single. Mitch Maier bunted to Matusz, and Francoeur scored on the safety squeeze for a 2-1 lead.

Baltimore tied it in fourth when Andino, who reached on a fielder’s choice with one out, stole second and advanced to third on catcher Humberto Quintero’s throwing error. Xavier Avery, who had been in a 2-for-22 rut, hit an RBI single.

The Royals broke the 2-all tie in the sixth when Francoeur led off with a home run to left field that was barely fair. It was his fifth home run of the season, all on the road. With one out, Escobar singled, and he scored on Quintero’s RBI double.

“We didn’t do much after the fifth there. That was the story. They made us pay for whatever mistakes Brian made. We had trouble with Butler and Francoeur and they got us again here,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.

Hochevar started and threw 100 pitches in 4 2/3 innings. He allowed one earned run and seven hits. He entered with an 0-3 record and 9.47 ERA at Camden Yards.

— Associated Press —

Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees are still looking to bust out with that big hit. The mood in the clubhouse was much better, though, following a much-needed win.

Robinson Cano homered, Phil Hughes beat Kansas City for the second time this month and New York eked out a 3-2 victory over the Royals on Tuesday night.

Derek Jeter delivered a bases-loaded single that tied the score and New York rallied from an early two-run deficit to snap a three-game skid. Shut out Monday in the series opener, the Yankees (22-21) went 2 for 7 with runners in scoring position — one night after they finished 0 for 13 in those situations for their worst performance with RISP since 1990.

“It wasn’t that pretty, but that was a good win,” said Rodriguez, who struck out with the bases loaded but combined with Mark Teixeira on a game-saving defensive play. “It felt really good to win a game like this. Sometimes you need a game like this to kind of get you on a roll. Hopefully it’s a good sign of things to come. We haven’t been winning these kinds of games.”

New York, which had lost six of seven to drop into a last-place tie with Boston in the AL East, now has eight hits in its last 79 at-bats (.101) with runners in scoring position.

Hughes (4-5) gave up five hits in six innings while striking out seven, beating Royals right-hander Luke Hochevar (3-5) for the second time in 17 days.

“It seemed like nothing was a walk in the park tonight,” Hughes said.

The Yankees caught a break when Mike Moustakas lined into a double play to end the eighth. Rafael Soriano worked the ninth for his third save, retiring Alcides Escobar with a runner on third to end Kansas City’s five-game winning streak away from home.

Rodriguez fielded Escobar’s grounder behind third base and made a high throw across the diamond. Teixeira stretched out his 6-foot-3 frame and kept his toe on the bag as New York got the call on a bang-bang play.

“I don’t think there’s many other first basemen in the league that could stretch like that and make that play,” Hughes said.

“Had ’em all the way,” Jeter said.

Cano put the Yankees on the scoreboard with a long solo homer in the fourth, making him 6 for 12 with three home runs and nine RBIs against Hochevar — including a grand slam May 6 in Kansas City.

New York tagged Hochevar for seven runs and seven hits over 2 1/3 innings in that outing and he entered Tuesday night 0-2 with an 8.83 ERA in four career games against the Yankees.

He hung tough this time, coughing up a 2-0 lead but keeping Kansas City in it when the Yankees appeared poised to finally break loose.

Teixeira, batting seventh for the second consecutive game, singled through the shift to start the fifth and went to second when Jeff Francoeur bobbled the ball in right for an error. Russell Martin was grazed by a pitch and Dewayne Wise reached on a perfectly placed bunt single even though the Royals were expecting a sacrifice.

Once again, the Yankees had the bases loaded and none out with big hitters coming up. They came up empty in that situation during Monday night’s 6-0 defeat, but not this time.

Jeter dumped an RBI single into right and Curtis Granderson drove in a run with a groundout, giving New York a 3-2 lead.

“We scored a lot of runs right after that and piled on,” Jeter said sarcastically.

Cano was intentionally walked to load the bases for Rodriguez, and the Yankees had a chance to really bust it open. But Rodriguez struck out, drawing boos from the crowd of 37,674, and Raul Ibanez went down swinging as well.

New York never managed another baserunner.

“Hoch pitched great. He did a great job in that inning. They didn’t really hit the ball hard,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He limited the damage big-time.”

Kansas City grabbed an early lead when No. 9 batter Humberto Quintero went the other way on Hughes’ hanging curve for an RBI double in the second.

Francoeur added a solo shot in the fourth to make it 2-0, his third homer this season and second in two nights at Yankee Stadium.

Hughes has served up 11 home runs in 47 1/3 innings this year. He has allowed at least one in all nine starts, the longest streak by a Yankees pitcher since Jack McDowell in 1995.

— Associated Press —

With every out the New York Yankees made and every run they gave up, the boos from the sparse crowd got louder.

New York’s 6-0 defeat to the Kansas City Royals on a misty, dreary Monday night was the Yankees’ sixth loss in seven games, dropping them into last place in the AL East this late in the season for the first time since 2008.

“At times, it looks like there’s 20 people out there playing defense,” Yankees captain Derek Jeter said. “It happens every year. It happens to every team. It doesn’t look good when you’re going through it, but you’ve got to have confidence.”

Felipe Paulino blanked New York for the second time in a month, and Mike Moustakas and Jeff Francoeur hit two-run homers.

New York’s bats fizzled once again, going 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position with five strikeouts and a foulout — the Yankees’ most hitless at-bats with RISP since July 1990. Jeered repeatedly by their increasingly impatient fans, the Yankees dropped to 21-21, their worst record at this point in the season since they started 20-25 in 2008 — the only time since 1994 that New York failed to make the playoffs. They’re tied with Boston for the division cellar.

“You’re going to hear it on the road, and you’re going to hear it at home when you don’t play well,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s because our fans are passionate and they want us to win. And I understand that. So do the guys in that room. If they’re unhappy with us, believe me, we’re probably unhappier.”

New York stranded runners at the corners in the first, then wasted a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the third when Robinson Cano took a slider for a called third strike, Alex Rodriguez struck out swinging on a fastball and Raul Ibanez flied out to the left-field warning track. The Yankees stranded runners at third in the fourth and sixth innings, left two on in the seventh and another in the ninth.

New York is 7 for 37 (.189) with the bases loaded this season and hitting .222 with runners in scoring position, including 6 for 72 (.083) in its last nine games. The Yankees are 0-10 when they fail to hit a home run.

“It’s very frustrating,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve talked about it over and over again. You can’t really describe it. It’s not a lot of fun obviously going out and not getting the job done. But at this point, nobody’s going to feel sorry for us.”

Hiroki Kuroda (3-6) allowed three runs, seven hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings, failing to retire the side in order in an inning and raising his ERA to 4.56. After adding Andy Pettitte to the rotation and sending Garcia to the bullpen, pressure may increase on New York to make another move, such as signing free agent Roy Oswalt.

Paulino (2-1) became the first starter to pitch shutout ball against the Yankees in consecutive outings since Boston’s Josh Beckett on April 10 and May 14 last year, according to STATS LLC. Following up on his six innings of four-hit ball on May 5, Paulino allowed six hits in 6 2/3 innings, struck out eight and walked two.

“Bases loaded, nobody out against the meat of their order and got through it. A runner on third, one out and got through it. So, he’s pitching really, really well,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

Kansas City opened a nine-game trip by beating the Yankees for the third time in five meetings this year, and Yost got his 600th win as a manger — earning a beer shower from his players.

Batting cleanup for the first time in his big league career, Moustakas homered in the first inning with a drive that clanked high off the right-field foul pole.

“It’s really cool,” Moustakas said. “Coming into this park, you know all the history behind old Yankee Stadium and the kind of things they brought. Just to play in this stadium is awesome.”

Eric Hosmer added an RBI double in the third, and Francoeur homered into the visitor’s bullpen in the seventh on Freddy Garcia’s second pitch of the night.

In a sign of the Yankees’ frustration, Garcia threw a run-scoring wild pitch in the eighth, then spiked the ball in disgust. In the sixth, Mark Teixeira put both hands on his head incredulously after throwing late to third on Irving Falu’s grounder instead of taking the sure out at first.

By the time Jeter hit a game-ending lineout, completing a seven-hitter, only a few thousand fans remained.

“We have a lot of baseball to be played,” Rodriguez said.

But as Yogi Berra famously said, it gets late early.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of frustration in here,” Rodriguez said. “We know we’re capable of doing a lot more, and I think we will. Tomorrow would be a great day to start.”

— Associated Press —