Power was the theme of the day for the Indians as they launched five home runs and received a dominant outing from Carlos Carrasco en route to an 11-4 rout over the Royals on Wednesday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.
Led by a two-homer, six-RBI performance by rookie Tyler Naquin, the first-place Indians took two of three in the series. Cleveland now has a 7 1/2-game lead over second-place Detroit and a nine-game edge over Kansas City in the American League Central.
“Right in front of our eyes, we’re seeing a kid get better at the Major League level,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “That’s kind of fun to watch. He hits the ball to left field, which is not easy to do. And he hits the ball to center field — that’s kind of big boy area. He’s a really strong kid and he’s playing with a lot of confidence, as he should.”
Mike Napoli, Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis joined in the homer parade, which chased Royals righty Ian Kennedy from the contest after 4 1/3 innings. Kennedy was on the hook for four of the home runs as the Indians used a seven-run fifth inning to run away with this one.
Carrasco (7-3, 2.31 ERA) picked up the win after spinning six shutout innings, in which he struck out six, walked two and allowed just one hit. Over the three-game series, Cleveland’s rotation combined for a 0.92 ERA with 21 strikeouts and six walks in 19 2/3 innings.
Kansas City finally broke through for three runs off Indians reliever Austin Adams in the eighth inning. Christian Colon, Cheslor Cuthbert, Alex Gordon and Drew Butera each knocked in a run.
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