KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Rick Porcello is already in his sixth full season in the big leagues, which makes it all the easier to forget that the Tigers right-hander is still just 25 years old.

“I do think he’s still learning himself a little bit,” Detroit manager Brad Ausmus said after an 8-2 win over the Kansas City Royals, a game that Porcello dominated for seven innings.

“Rick has really matured dramatically over his time here,” Ausmus said. “You have to remember the guy is pretty young. You think he’s older because he’s been in the starting rotation.”

Porcello (4-1) gave up a sacrifice fly to Eric Hosmer, a solo homer to Billy Butler and little else Friday night. He wound up allowing four hits while striking out six without a walk.

“Throwing first-pitch strikes I think was the biggest key tonight,” he said. “Being ahead 0-1 instead of 1-0 is huge. You can go a lot of different ways when you do that.”

Victor Martinez had a pair of doubles and drove in two runs, and J.D. Martinez and Alex Avila also drove in two runs apiece as the Tigers won their fourth straight against the Royals.

Meanwhile, Shields (3-3) allowed eight runs — seven of them earned — on 12 hits, a walk and a hit batter in 6 1/3 innings. It was the worst outing for the Royals ace since last September, when Shields allowed 10 runs in another lousy start against the Tigers.

“I threw some good pitches. That’s a good hitting ball club over there,” he said. “I wasn’t locating my pitches. I was getting behind in the count. I didn’t do my job out there, bottom line. I’ve got to do a better job of getting outs. It’s just one of those games.”

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Royals also lost All-Star catcher Salvador Perez when he fouled a pitch off his shin in the seventh inning. He was listed as day to day with a bruise.

Shields first got into trouble in the second, when he loaded the bases but escaped the jam unscathed. But things only got worse in the third, when a single by Torii Hunter and back-to-back doubles by Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez gave Detroit a 2-1 lead.

They never gave it back the rest of the game.

J.D. Martinez kept the onslaught going when he led off the fourth with a double, and Avila followed by hitting the first pitch of his at-bat for his first homer of the season. Detroit added another run later in the inning when Andrew Romine reached third on an error by the Royals’ Mike Moustakas, and then scored on a double-play groundout.

Butler provided the only bright spot the rest of the way for Kansas City, guiding a line drive over the fence in left field for his first homer of the season — and the first by any hitter batting in the cleanup spot in the Royals lineup.

“I knew I hit it good. I didn’t know if it was high enough to get out,” Butler said. “I knew I hit it hard, but didn’t hit it very high. I couldn’t see if it was fair or foul. I knew it was really close, too.”

Shields was finally pulled in the seventh, allowing another run and leaving the bases loaded while recording one out. Reliever Kelvin Herrera gave up a double to J.D. Martinez that brought in two more runs and gave the Tigers an 8-2 lead.

That was plenty of support for Porcello, who had been miserable in the month of April until this season, when he went 3-1 with a 3.96 ERA. He kept that momentum going against Kansas City, a team he oddly never faced last season, retiring his final 12 batters.

“He’s been throwing the ball great all season long,” Victor Martinez said. “He’s showing he’s young but he knows what he’s doing out there. He’s giving us a great chance to win ballgames.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mark Buehrle allowed two walks and both runners ended up scoring.

So despite pitching into the seventh inning Thursday night, and helping the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals that staved off a series sweep, the veteran left-hander still had something to ruminate over in the visiting clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium.

“I’d rather give up 10 hits and no walks. I hate it. Make them earn it,” Buehrle said. “But you know, our offense bounced back and the defense played well behind me.”

Apparently, nobody is tougher on Buehrle than Buehrle.

Juan Francisco and Colby Rasmus each homered and drove in two runs, and Anthony Gose also had a pair of RBIs after getting recalled from Triple-A Buffalo to start in place of injured outfielder Melky Cabrera, helping Toronto avoid its first three-game sweep by the Royals since 1993.

Buehrle (5-1) worked through plenty of trouble in 6 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on seven hits and those two walks. Aaron Loup pitched 2 1/3 shutout innings for his third career save.

“(Buehrle) pitches to win,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “He’s going to do whatever it takes, and he’s on a nice little roll. He’s having a good year for us.”

The Royals’ Jeremy Guthrie (2-2) left trailing 4-3 after six innings, but his bullpen was unable to keep it close. Billy Butler drove in a pair of runs, but that was just about it for Kansas City, which had its three-game winning streak come to an end.

“He mixes speeds. He locates. He frustrates you,” Butler said of Buehrle, no stranger to Kansas City having pitched for the AL Central rival White Sox. “He feeds off your over aggressiveness.”

The teams traded blows most of the way.

Toronto struck first when Chris Getz singled in the first inning and then swiped bases all the way to third, where Edwin Encarnacion drove him in with a fielder’s choice.

Kansas City answered in the second when Justin Maxwell walked and Alcides Escobar singled to right. Jose Bautista flubbed the pickup, allowing Maxwell to score easily.

The Royals pulled ahead in the third on Butler’s single, though they squandered another scoring opportunity when Eric Hosmer was thrown out at home for the second straight night.

The Blue Jays regained the lead the next half inning when Francisco, who had two homers in three at-bats off Guthrie last season, hit a two-run shot over the bullpen in right field. But the Royals answered again on Butler’s two-out double to left in the bottom of the fifth.

“I’m seeing the ball good now,” Butler said. “I knew it was going to come.”

The Royals kept shifting dramatically to deal with the Blue Jays’ left-handed power hitters, but it didn’t matter when Rasmus came to bat in the sixth. He powered a 1-2 pitch right over the defense for a two-out homer that gave Toronto a 4-3 lead.

“I was trying to go down and in and didn’t get it there,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie finished off the inning, but was lifted after allowing four runs on eight hits and two walks in just six innings. His bumpy night stood in stark contrast to his last four outings against the Blue Jays, when he went 1-0 with a 1.44 ERA.

The Blue Jays tacked on some insurance in the eighth. Rasmus drew a bases-loaded walk off Michael Mariot, and then Gose hit a two-run double off Louis Coleman that broke the game open.

“It was definitely a big win,” Loup said. “Close game like it was, back and forth, back and forth. Hopefully it gets us on a roll, gets us some wins.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Alcides Escobar is a maestro with his glove, making the kinds difficult of plays at shortstop that has helped to make the Kansas City Royals one of the best defensive teams in baseball.

On Wednesday night, Escobar showed he can swing the bat a bit, too. His two-run double in the seventh inning proved to be the difference in a tense 4-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

“He’s been very consistent,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He’s always been an important part of our club because of his defense. He saves runs in the field. But when you add offense to that, he becomes a very special player.”

Eric Hosmer drove in the other two runs for the Royals, whose bullpen blew a 2-0 lead for young starter Yordano Ventura before holding on to beat Toronto with a late rally for the second straight night. Kansas City won the series opener 10-7 behind a six-run eighth inning.

Kelvin Herrera (1-1) stranded runners on second and third in the seventh, and Wade Davis struck out Jose Reyes to leave the bases loaded in the eighth. Greg Holland worked around a double in the ninth for his seventh save in seven tries.

“You play 162 games. You’re going to see a lot of things happen,” Holland said. “The mark of a good bullpen is when you have guys pick each other up when they get in jams.”

Drew Hutchison (1-2) allowed all four runs on five hits in seven innings for Toronto.

The 23-year-old right-hander, who missed last season after Tommy John surgery, kept the Royals mostly off balance until Escobar guided his double down the left-field line with two outs in the seventh. Jimmy Paredes and Salvy Perez scored easily to give Kansas City the lead.

“I got ahead of him. I went right at him. I thought I made a good pitch,” Hutchison said. “That’s a situation where I expect myself to thrive and get the job done, but I didn’t.”

The Royals improved to 14-0 when scoring at least four runs — they remain 0-12 falling short of that mark. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays lost for the sixth time in their last seven games.

Toronto also lost outfielder Melky Cabrera in the sixth inning when he was hit in the left shin by a pitch from Danny Duffy. Cabrera needed to be helped off the field, though X-rays taken at the ballpark came back negative and a team spokesman said he was day to day.

The Royals manufactured a 1-0 lead through driving rain in the first inning with a double by Nori Aoki, a sacrifice bunt and Hosmer’s sacrifice fly. They tacked on another run in the fourth when Hosmer followed a double by Omar Infante with one of his own.

As long as Ventura was pitching, it seemed that would be enough.

The Blue Jays struggled to catch up to the 22-year-old’s triple-digit fastball, managing just two hits over five innings. But they were more successful at avoiding stuff off the plate, driving up his pitch count and forcing him from the game after five innings and 92 pitches.

“It was cold out there,” Ventura said through a translator, fellow starter Jeremy Guthrie. “Naturally, it was a little more difficult to command.”

That’s when Royals manager Ned Yost called on Duffy, who hit Cabrera in the left shin with his first pitch. Cabrera dropped to the grass in foul territory and stayed there several minutes, eventually getting helped through the dugout and to the clubhouse by the Blue Jays’ trainers.

Duffy proceeded to walk Jose Bautista on five pitches and was yanked for Aaron Crow, who gave up singles to Edwin Encarnacion and Juan Francisco that tied the game 2-all. Crow finally escaped the inning, and the Royals bullpen held Toronto down the rest of the way.

“It’s frustrating, but at the end of the day I need to do a better job to give us a chance to win after we came back and scored two runs,” Hutchison said. “I was in complete control going into the seventh. It comes down to that it’s on me and I need to get the job done.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Salvador Perez homered and drove in four runs and the Kansas City Royals rallied for a 10-7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.

Perez’s two-run double off Sergio Santos in the Royals’ six-run eighth put the Royals ahead. Perez’s four RBIs matched his career high.

The Royals sent 10 men to the plate in the eighth, which also included Omar Infante driving in two runs, while Nori Aoki and Jarrod Dyson added RBI singles.

Perez, who has three consecutive multi-hit games, homered in the seventh with Alex Gordon aboard to trim the Toronto lead to 5-4.

Aaron Crow (1-1), the third of four Royals pitchers, picked up the victory with a scoreless eighth inning and has not allowed an earned run and only five hits in nine innings this season.

Brett Cecil (0-2) took the loss, retiring only two of the five batters he faced.

The Blue Jays’ bullpen gave up seven runs in two innings after starter Dustin McGowan left the game.

Jose Bautista homered for the Blue Jays and has reached base in all 26 games. Bautista homered in the first off Royals left-hander Jason Vargas.

Melky Cabrera extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a double, triple and drove in two Toronto runs. He tops the majors with 41 hits.

Cabrera’s triple in the fifth scored Jose Reyes, who had doubled. Cabrera, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games, scored on a Vargas wild pitch, putting the Blue Jays up 3-2.

McGowan, who has missed three seasons with injuries, pitched into the seventh inning, holding the Royals to three hits and three runs, two earned.

The Royals took advantage of two walks and a wild pitch, plus a throwing error on catcher Dioner Navarro to score two runs in the second inning.

The Royals won a challenge review in the second, taking away a RBI infield single from Chris Getz.

— Associated Press —

BALTIMORE (AP) — There won’t be too many games in which James Shields throws seven innings of three-hit ball and is upstaged by a teammate.

This was one of them.

Omar Infante homered and tied a career high with six RBIs to carry the Kansas City Royals over the Baltimore Orioles 9-3 on Sunday.

Shields (3-2) allowed two runs, struck out six and walked two in winning his third straight start. The right-hander gave up only an infield hit in the first five innings and improved to 10-7 lifetime against Baltimore, including 7-2 at Camden Yards.

Shields was more impressed with Infante’s performance, which included a fine defensive play at second base against Baltimore leadoff hitter Jemile Weeks.

“Omar, definitely the player of the game,” Shields said. “It all started with that first play he made barehanded. He had a great day today. Definitely carried our team.”

Infante hit a run-scoring groundout in the first inning, a sacrifice fly in the third, a two-run double in the fifth and a two-run shot in the seventh. He entered with one home run and 11 RBIs in 21 games.

“It was a great day for me,” Infante said. “I’m happy because that has not happened too many times for a player. It was a great day for the team. I’ve been working hard in the cage. The last couple of days I hit a lot of fly balls. I don’t like that; I want to drive the ball.”

The last time Infante had six RBIs was last Sept. 13 with the Tigers against Kansas City. The starter for the Royals that day was …. James Shields.

“I’m glad he’s on my team now,” Shields said.

Nori Aoki scored three runs for the Royals, who took two of three from Baltimore to conclude a 3-4 road trip that began in Cleveland. Kansas City is 12-0 when scoring at least four runs and 0-12 when scoring three runs or fewer.

“I take it we need to score four runs. We’re trying to do it more,” manager Ned Yost said. “It’s just a testament to how good our pitching is, how good our bullpen is. How good our starting pitchers are, how consistent they are that we could have that kind of record.”

Nelson Cruz hit his seventh homer for the Orioles, who finished with five hits. Before the game, Baltimore put slugger Chris Davis on the 15-day disabled list with a left oblique strain.

Miguel Gonzalez (1-2) gave up four runs, three earned, and six hits in six innings.

“Deserved a better fate,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.

The Orioles quickly got a hint of what kind of day it was going to be when Aoki, leading off the first, hit a fly to center that popped out Adam Jones’ glove for a three-base error. Infante followed with a grounder to shortstop that put the Royals ahead for good.

“Missed it,” Jones acknowledged.

It wasn’t the Orioles’ only mistake.

“We made a couple of good decisions with pitchouts (but) we weren’t able to execute that,” Showalter said. “Those are two free outs. Then obviously, Adam’s one of the best center fielders in the game. So I’m not going to lament that at all. He’s been a rock for us out there. You spot them, give them those type of things that they don’t earn, with Shields on the mound, that’s not a good combination.”

Baltimore fell to 0-7 in games it makes an error. The Orioles are 12-5 without committing an error.

After Jarrod Dyson singled and scored in the third, singles by Alcides Escobar and Aoki preceded Infante’s double in the fifth.

Baltimore closed to 4-2 in the sixth when Jemile Weeks singled and Cruz homered to center, but Kansas City’s four-run seventh against reliever Evan Meek turned the game into a blowout. After Infante connected, Alex Gordon doubled in two runs for an 8-2 lead.

“The flood gates opened,” Yost said. “That broke the game open at that point.”

Mike Moustakas doubled in a run off Ryan Webb in the ninth, and the Orioles scored in the bottom half on a wild pitch.

— Associated Press —

BALTIMORE (AP) — Nick Markakis singled in the winning run in 10th inning after two throwing errors by pitcher Danny Duffy laid the groundwork for the Baltimore Orioles’ 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.

The Orioles went eight straight innings without scoring before facing Duffy, who had pitched 8 1/3 scoreless innings on the season.

After Duffy (1-1) hit Jonathan Schoop to begin the 10th, the left-hander threw wildly to second base after fielding a bunt by David Lough. Jemile Weeks followed with another bunt, and on this one Duffy’s throw went high and wide to first, loading the bases.

Louis Coleman replaced Duffy and struck out Nelson Cruz before Markakis hit an opposite-field liner that landed inside the left-field foul line.

Zach Britton (3-0), the sixth Baltimore pitcher, struck out Jarrod Dyson with two outs and a runner on second in the top of the 10th.

Kansas City fell to 0-12 when failing to score at least four runs. The Royals — who stranded 11 and went 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position — are 11-0 when scoring four or more runs.

The Orioles played without slugger Chris Davis, who left Friday night’s game with a strained left oblique. Although Davis expects to avoid the disabled list, Baltimore recalled Weeks from Triple-A Norfolk to provide an extra bat while last year’s major league home run leader is sidelined.

Davis was replaced at first base by Markakis, who moved from his customary spot in right field to a position he hadn’t played since 2011.

Jeremy Guthrie started for Kansas City and gave up two runs before getting two outs, and then blanked his former team over the next six innings before leaving with the game tied. The right-hander finished up by getting David Lough to hit into a double play with runners on the corners and one out in the seventh.

Baltimore starter Wei-Yin Chen allowed two runs, nine hits and two walks over a season-high seven innings. The left-hander ended his outing with his sixth strikeout, against Alex Gordon with two on and two outs.

The Orioles took a 2-0 lead in the first. Weeks hit a leadoff single in his first at-bat with Baltimore, Cruz walked and Markakis delivered an RBI single before Adam Jones drove in a run by hitting into a fielder’s choice.

The Royals used doubles by Alcides Escobar and Eric Hosmer to get a run in the third. Chen avoided further damage by retiring Gordon on a grounder with the bases loaded and two outs.

After Weeks tripled with two outs in the fifth and Cruz looked at a third strike, Kansas City pulled even in the sixth. Gordon singled and Danny Valencia beat out a chopper to third before Justin Maxwell blooped a two-out RBI single to center.

— Associated Press —

BALTIMORE (AP) — Yordano Ventura scattered seven hits over eight innings Friday night as the Kansas City Royals cruised to a 5-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, who played the latter part of the game without injured slugger Chris Davis.

Davis left in the fifth inning with a left oblique strain. The severity of the injury was not immediately known, but Davis looked to be in obvious discomfort as he walked toward the dugout following a third-inning flyout.

Davis led the majors with 53 home runs and 138 RBIs last season. Although he has only two homers this year, Davis reached base in a career-high 20 straight games before going 0 for 2 in this one.

Ventura (2-1) had a career-high eight strikeouts and walked two in his seventh major league start. The 22-year-old rookie, who had never before gone longer than seven innings, stymied a club that totaled 21 runs in its last two games.

Baltimore got only one runner past second base against the hard-throwing Ventura, a non-drafted free agent from the Dominican Republic.

Greg Holland worked a perfect ninth to finish off the Royals’ second shutout of the season. Kansas City is 11-0 when scoring at least four runs and 0-11 when scoring three runs or less.

Ubaldo Jimenez (0-4) allowed four runs and six hits in six-plus innings. The right-hander has lost four of his five starts with the Orioles, who signed him to a $50 million, four-year contract in February.

After the start of the game was delayed 55 minutes by rain, the Royals wasted no time in taking a 2-0 lead. Jimenez walked Omar Infante and gave up a single to Eric Hosmer before yielding RBI singles to Billy Butler and Alex Gordon.

Alcides Escobar reached third with no outs in Kansas City second, but was stranded. The Orioles got two singles in both the second and fourth innings before Ventura worked out of trouble.

The Royals chased Jimenez during a two-run seventh. Escobar walked and Jarrod Dyson reached on a bunt before Nori Aoki delivered an RBI single past the drawn-in infield and Infante singled in a run on reliever T.J. McFarland’s first pitch.

Butler made it 5-0 in the ninth with a two-out RBI double.

— Associated Press —

CLEVELAND (AP) — Corey Kluber stayed stone-faced, maintaining the same stoic look in the clubhouse that he had for nine innings on the mound.

Only when prodded by an Indians teammate did Kluber crack.

“Did you smile after the game?” pitcher Justin Masterson yelled to Kluber.

“I did,” he said. “Only when I saw you.”

Kluber had everyone in Cleveland’s clubhouse smiling after he struck out a career-high 11 and pitched a four-hitter for his first complete game, leading the Indians to a 5-1 win over the Royals on Thursday.

Kluber (2-2) didn’t walk a batter, and his rare outing allowed Cleveland manager Terry Francona to give some needed rest to his bullpen.

“That was really fun to watch,” Francona said. “He had everything working. His fastball was going both ways, change-up, location. He worked ahead and he threw a ton of strikes. That was really impressive.”

Kluber is the first Cleveland pitcher to throw a complete game while recording 11 strikeouts, no walks or earned runs since Len Barker’s perfect game in 1981.

“It was nice,” said Kluber, who couldn’t remember the last time he pitched nine innings. “I really wasn’t trying to make a bigger deal out of it than going out there and getting three more outs. Maybe that’s why it worked out.”

David Murphy and Asdrubal Cabrera drove in two runs apiece in the Indians’ five-run fifth off Bruce Chen (1-2), who controlled Cleveland’s lineup for four innings.

The Indians have won four of five to get back to .500.

The Royals scored an unearned run off Kluber in the seventh when Omar Infante singled and scored when Indians first baseman Nick Swisher made a half-hearted attempt at Mike Moustakas’ grounder, which got by him for an error and rolled all the way into the right-field corner.

Other than that, Kansas City’s hitters were unable to do much against Kluber, whose previous long outing was 8 2/3 innings last July against the White Sox. He’s 3-0 in four career starts against the Royals.

“He put it to us,” said Alex Gordon, who went 0-for-4 and struck out to the end the game. “Give him credit. You look at our offense today and say we stunk. That’s how it was.”

Chen coasted through four innings, dominating the Indians with a mix of off-speed pitches before they touched him for five runs and chased him in the fifth.

The left-hander retired 11 straight before Carlos Santana led off with a double, snapping an 0-for-16 slide with just his third hit in 48 at-bats. Michael Brantley followed with a single to center for his team-leading 19th RBI, giving Cleveland a 1-0 lead.

The Indians didn’t stop there as Murphy slapped a two-run single to left, and Cabrera made it 5-0 with his double down the left-field line to end Chen’s outing.

The 28-year-old Kluber doesn’t come across as fiery, but Francona said his low-key demeanor is deceiving.

“He’s not the loudest guy in the clubhouse, but there’s a fire there, man,” Francona said. “He competes. He wants to be really good. He goes at it the right way. For a kid that doesn’t have a ton of time in the major leagues, he’s a good pro.”

Kansas City managed just one hit off Kluber in the first four innings, and then the Royals ran their way out of a scoring chance in the fifth when Alcides Escobar hesitated rounding second on Jarrod Dyson’s base hit, and Brantley threw him out from center.

The Royals turned a nifty double play to end the first.

With a Cabrera at third, first baseman Eric Hosmer fielded Jason Kipnis’ hard grounder, stepped on first and threw home. Catcher Brett Hayes made a sweeping tag on Cabrera, who was called out. Crew chief Bill Miller called for a review to see if Hayes had blocked the plate, but the call was confirmed.

— Associated Press —

CLEVELAND (AP)  — With seven games still left this month, Jason Kipnis has already surpassed his statistics from last April.

That wasn’t hard to do.

“I set the bar so low,” he said.

Kipnis drove in Nick Swisher from first base with a two-out double in the seventh inning, sending the Cleveland Indians to a 5-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.

Kipnis, who batted just .200 with one homer and four RBIs in the season’s first month in 2013, ripped his double off Kelvin Herrera (0-1) into the gap in right-center, deep enough to easily score Swisher, who reached on a two-out single.

“That was a real big hit,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Sometimes you need a big hit at a big time and we got it tonight.”

Kipnis has become big time.

After shaking off his horribly slow start last season, he made his first All-Star team, batted .284 and developed into one of the AL’s top all-around players.

So, when he came up in another clutch situation, it wasn’t surprising to any of the Indians that Kipnis came through.

Kipnis signed a six-year, $52.5 million contract on opening day and he’s wasted no time in living up to the deal.

“I think he has less far to climb this year,” Francona said. “He really dug himself a hole last year. He’s always a threat, whether it’s against a left-hander or right-hander. He can hit the ball all over the field or out of the ballpark. He can beat you with his legs.

“I don’t really look up and see what Kip’s batting average is, we want him hitting all the time.”

The Indians tacked on an important insurance run in the eighth on pinch-hitter Lonnie Chisenhall’s bloop RBI single.

Bryan Shaw (1-0) finished the seventh and got one out in the eighth. Cody Allen retired two, and John Axford worked the ninth for his AL-leading eighth save.

Michael Bourn had three hits and two RBIs for the Indians. Bourn, Nick Swisher and Kipnis, Cleveland’s 1-2-3 hitters, combined for six hits and three RBIs.

Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas hit back-to-back homers in the second for Kansas City.

Indians starter Justin Masterson remained winless through five starts. The staff’s ace, who turned down a contract extension during spring training, allowed two earned runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings.

“I’ll take as many no-decisions as come as long as we’re winning,” he said.

Down 3-2, the Indians tied it in the sixth off lefty starter Jason Vargas when Michael Brantley scored from first on two Kansas City errors.

Brantley singled with one out, and broke for second with two down and Yan Gomes batting. As Brantley slid safely into second, the throw from catcher Perez skipped into center field. Brantley hustled toward third and center fielder Jarrod Dyson took his eye off the ball, overrunning it and letting the tying run score.

“I came in too hard,” Dyson said. “I should have come in and played it off the hop because I probably didn’t have a shot at him anyway. I have to remind myself to slow the body down. I came in crashing like that. When you have two outs and your pitcher up there doing his thing you kind of have to settle down and not make that mistake.”

Moustakas gave the Royals a 3-2 lead in the sixth, when an error by second baseman Kipnis helped set up Kansas City’s unearned go-ahead run.

Eric Hosmer singled and was safe at second after Kipnis dropped shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera’s low throw. Hosmer moved to third on a fielder’s choice and Moustakas delivered his two-out RBI single.

Bourn atoned for a baserunning blunder with a two-run triple in the second to tie it 2-2.

Perez and Moustakas connected in the second off Masterson.

With one out, Perez snapped an 0-for-22 slump with a drive over the center-field wall for his first homer.

Four pitches later, Moustakas made it 2-0 with a liner into the Royals’ bullpen, the same place he hit a three-run shot on Tuesday in Kansas City’s 8-2 win.

— Associated Press —

CLEVELAND (AP) — James Shields allowed two runs in six innings and Mike Moustakas hit a three-run homer to lead the Kansas City Royals to an 8-2 win over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night.

Shields (2-2) struck out nine and won his second straight start.

Moustakas’ homer sparked Kansas City’s four-run fourth that featured five hits. The Royals are 10-0 when scoring at least four runs.

Eric Hosmer had four hits, including an RBI double in the seventh.

Cleveland manager Terry Francona turned 55 years old Tuesday, but the Indians were unable to win a third straight game for the first time this season.

Danny Salazar (0-3) didn’t allow a hit until the fourth, but unraveled quickly when Hosmer led off with a single. Billy Butler followed with another single before Salazar retired the next two hitters. Moustakas drove a 1-1 pitch into Kansas City’s bullpen in right field, breaking a 2 for 15 slump.

Alcides Escobar followed with another single, stole second and went to third on catcher Yan Gomes’ throwing error. Jarrod Dyson’s bunt hit made it 4-1.

Salazar didn’t get through the fifth. Hosmer doubled with one out before Butler hit a drive to deep center. Michael Bourn got a glove on the ball, but couldn’t make the leaping catch as Hosmer scored and Butler was credited with a double.

Hosmer was 4 for 5. His seventh-inning double gave Kansas City a four-run lead and he added a single in the ninth.

Salazar, who pitched well in 10 starts after being called up last season, hasn’t been able to find the same consistency in his first four starts. The right-hander allowed five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out six.

Shields allowed an unearned run in the second, but held the Indians in check until the sixth while his teammates gave him the lead.

Bourn’s bases-loaded single put Cleveland ahead. Second baseman Omar Infante’s fielding error on Asdrubal Cabrera’s ground ball started the rally. David Murphy singled and Lonnie Chisenhall was hit by a pitch with two outs. Bourn’s sharp single to right scored Cabrera, but Murphy was held at third on Nori Aoki’s strong throw. The inning ended when Nick Swisher flied out.

Gomes has six errors in 18 games after committing three last season.

Royals catcher Salvador Perez was 0 for 5 and is hitless in his last 22 at-bats.

Cleveland third baseman Carlos Santana is in a 2 for 43 skid after going hitless in four at-bats.

The game-time temperature was announced at 50 degrees, but a strong wind made it feel much colder. The crowd of 8,848 barely surpassed the all-tune low at Progressive Field of 8,726.

— Associated Press —