CLEVELAND (AP)– Omar Infante drove in a career-high seven runs and the Kansas City Royals overcame some early sloppiness for an 8-4 win over the Cleveland Indians on Thursday night.
Infante, a veteran infielder making his first start in 11 days, 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Kluber’s return was surprisingly short.
On Wednesday, Indians manager Terry 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.
