Royals try to pick up series win over Indians

(SportsNetwork.com) - The Kansas City Royals aim for a series win over the Cleveland Indians when the AL Central foes continue a three-game series Wednesday from Kauffman Stadium.

The division-leading Royals ended a two-game slide with Tuesday's 5-3 triumph over the Indians and Eric Hosmer belted a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning. Michael Brantley gave the Tribe a short-lived 2-0 lead in the top of the inning with a two-run shot.

Hosmer had four RBI on the night and Alex Gordon finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored for the Royals, who are 3-2 on a seven-game homestand.

"We knew we had to step up and find a way to produce runs," Hosmer said.

Royals starting pitcher Jason Vargas pushed his record to 3-1 with six decent innings, charged with two runs and two hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis combined to allow one run in three innings of relief. Davis has six saves this season.

Danny Duffy tries to pitch the Royals to victory when he takes the hill Wednesday and is 2-0 with a 3.45 earned run average in five starts. The Royals are 4-1 when he takes the hill and Duffy fired seven innings of one-run ball in an 8-1 win over Detroit last Thursday. He struck out seven and walked two.

Duffy, a left-hander, has faced the Indians seven times (6 starts) in his career and has a 2-1 record with a 2.61 ERA.

The Indians have alternated results the previous seven games and their early lead went to waste in the opener of this set.

Brantley homered and Lonnie Chisenhall added a solo shot, while starting pitcher Danny Salazar was saddled with his first loss of the season (3-1). Salazar gave up four runs in seven innings and struck out nine with no walks.

"We needed a shutdown inning and we didn't get it," Indians manager Terry Francona said.

Cleveland fell to 3-7 over its last 10 games and Nick Swisher was activated off the disabled list prior to the game and went 0-for-3 in his season debut. Swisher underwent surgery on both knees last August after batting .208 with a .278 on-base percentage, both career lows.

The Indians are 3-15 when allowing at least three runs and hope to get some support for Carlos Carrasco Wednesday night. Carrasco is 3-2 with a 4.98 earned run average in five starts and defeated Toronto the last time out on Friday, tossing six innings and allowing four runs in a 9-4 victory.

Carrasco has made 12 appearances (7 starts) against the Royals in his career and has a 2-4 record to go along with a 4.82 ERA.

The Indians recently lost two of three meetings with the Royals from April 27-29 and has won six of the previous 11 matchups between AL Central foes.