Kansas City, MO – Ryan Raburn went 4-for-4 with two homers and four RBI to lead the Cleveland Indians in a 9-0 rout of the Kansas City Royals that wrapped up a four-game set.
Asdrubal Cabrera drove in two runs while Jason Kipnis hit a solo homer and scored twice for the Indians, who won the final two games of this series.
"It's great. This team battles," said Raburn. "That's all you can ask for. Sometimes the chips fall our way. Sometimes they don't. It's just going out there and playing hard and, hopefully, the balls rolls to our court and we can roll with it. Tonight we were able to."
Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2) gave up just three hits and two walks with four strikeouts over seven-plus innings to pick up his first win in five starts.
Mike Moustakas' double was the lone extra-base hit for the Royals, who had won five of six prior to losing the past two. Wade Davis (2-2) was victimized for eight runs on 12 hits over 4 2/3 innings to drop a second straight start.
"Pitch selection was probably off here and there," said Davis. "I made some bad decisions and didn't execute, so next time I've got to do better."
Kipnis got Cleveland on the board in the first inning with his first home run of the year, a solo shot to center, and Cabrera's RBI single in the third made it a 2-0 game.
The Indians blew the game open in the fifth. Cabrera doubled home a run and Mark Reynolds later singled in Kipnis. A run-scoring double by Carlos Santana was followed by Raburn's three-run shot over the left-field wall for an 8-0 lead.
Raburn led off the top of the eighth with his second home run of the game led for a 9-0 advantage.
Jimenez faced little difficulty from the Kansas City lineup, as he faced the minimum through three innings and didn't allow a batter past second until Moustakas led off the eighth with a double.
Jeff Francoeur followed that with a single that prompted a pitching change, as Nick Hagadone took the mound.
Hagadone kept the Royals off the board by striking out George Kottaras, inducing a weak groundout back to the mound by Elliot Johnson and striking out Alex Gordon to end the frame.
Cody Allen worked a flawless ninth to close out the game.
Game Notes
Cleveland welcomes Philadelphia for a brief two-game set starting on Tuesday ... Kansas City hosts Tampa Bay for three games starting on Tuesday ... Jimenez moved to 3-2 in five career games against the Royals ... Davis fell to 2-1 in seven games (three starts) against the Indians.
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