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Sports

Indians hope to solve Royals' Chen

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Bruce Chen goes after his sixth straight win this evening game set against the Cleveland Indians at Kauffman Stadium.

Chen improved to 10-5 on the year on Sunday in Cleveland, as he held the Indians to a run and five hits in 7 1/3 innings to lower his earned run average to 3.94.

"He's been lights out," said KC third baseman Mike Moustakas. "He's keeping us on our toes and them on their heels."

Chen has beaten the Tribe twice this season and is 5-2 lifetime against them with a 4.44 ERA in 11 games, seven of which have been starts.

Cleveland, meanwhile, will counter with sinkerballing right-hander Justin Masterson, who is 10-8 with a 2.83 ERA. Masterson found himself on the losing end to Chen and the Royals on Sunday, despite surrendering just two runs in six innings of the 2-1 loss.

"My command was just a little bit off," Masterson said. "But even then, it's not like my stuff was bad, because I was still making pitches when I needed to. I kept it close to give our guys a chance to win at the end, like we've done so many times this year."

Masterson has faced the Royals 14 times (nine starts) and is 3-3 against them with a 3.79 ERA.

The Indians lost for only the second time in their last seven games on Thursday, as they were shut down by Gio Gonzalez and the Oakland Athletics in a 7-0 defeat.

Fausto Carmona (6-13) allowed four runs -- three earned -- on eight hits over six-plus innings for the Indians, who went 6-5 on an 11-game homestand. He struck out six and walked two.

"I can't sit here and complain about these guys taking three out of four and winning back-to-back series," Indians manager Manny Acta said.

The Indians remained 5 1/2 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central, as Detroit lost to Kansas City on Thursday when the Royals scored four times in the seventh inning on their way to an 11-8 win.

Jeff Francoeur and Eric Hosmer homered and Johnny Giavotella went 3-for-5 with two RBI for Kansas City, which managed a split of the four-game set.

Cleveland is 10-5 against the Royals this season.