Royals 3 - 6 Guardians
Final
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Brantley powers Indians past Royals

Jun 20, 2013 - 4:01 AM Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - Michael Brantley registered his first career multi-homer game and drove in three runs as the Cleveland Indians earned a 6-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals in the rubber match of a three-game set at Progressive Field.

Mike Aviles drove in two runs and Carlos Santana plated another for the Indians, winners in six of their last eight.

Justin Masterson (9-5) earned his first win since May 29 after tossing 6 1/3 innings and allowing two runs on nine hits with eight strikeouts.

"We got his pitch count up early," Royals manager Ned Yost said of Masterson. "I think we got eight or nine hits off him, we just couldn't do much damage. We got the two runs and that's it."

Luis Mendoza (2-4) pitched well early for Kansas City, but labored in a three- run sixth inning and was charged with a total of four runs on four hits with three walks over five-plus frames.

Eric Hosmer and David Lough each had three hits and drove in one run, while Elliot Johnson also drove in one for the Royals, who wrapped up a seven-game road trip with a 4-3 mark.

Mendoza cruised through the first four frames and failed to allow a hit until the start of the fifth, when Brantley cut Cleveland's deficit to 2-1 with a line-drive homer to right. Mendoza retired the next three batters in the fifth, but he fell apart in the sixth and the Indians took advantage by plating three runs.

Drew Stubbs singled and Michael Bourn walked before Aviles followed with a single to left to tie the game at 2-2, though Royals left fielder Alex Gordon appeared to drop an easy out. Jason Kipnis then surprised everyone with a bunt single, loading the bases with no outs. Mendoza then ended his night by walking in Santana to give the Tribe a 3-2 lead.

Tim Collins entered the game for Kansas City and served up a sacrifice fly to Brantley to round out the inning's scoring, but escaped the frame by striking out Ryan Raburn and forcing a Lonnie Chisenhall groundout.

Aviles added a sacrifice fly in the seventh and Brantley provided his second homer of the game in the eighth, another blast to right. Hosmer recorded an RBI double in the ninth for the visitors.

Kansas City opened up the scoring in the fourth as Lough singled, advanced to third on a Mike Moustakas double and scored on Johnson's RBI single to center.

The damage could have been worse for Masterson, but the righty fanned Alcides Escobar with runners on second and third and got some help from first baseman Mark Reynolds, who saved two runs from scoring with an inning- ending diving stab at first on Gordon's line drive.

"As the game progressed, I thought he (Masterson) started commanding better," Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. "So he limits damage, because we didn't do anything offensively for the first four innings."

The Royals added another run one inning later. Hosmer singled and swiped second, then moved to third on Billy Butler's single with one out. After Lorenzo Cain struck out, Lough came through with a run-scoring single down the left-field line to make it 2-0.

Game Notes

The Indians won their third consecutive series ... Masterson is 6-1 in nine starts at Progressive Field this year. He's allowed seven runs and struck out 52 to go 5-0 in his last six home starts ... The Royals had 12 hits and left nine men on base ... Bourn scored twice for Cleveland.






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