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Royals pound Indians

Apr 23, 2014 - 4:37 AM Cleveland, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Mike Moustakas homered and James Shields struck out nine Indians in six innings as the Kansas City Royals evened this four-game set with an 8-2 win over Cleveland on Tuesday.

Eric Hosmer went 4-for-5 with an RBI and three runs scored for Kansas City, which halted a two-game slide and has won six of its last eight games. Shields (2-2) allowed both runs -- one earned -- on six hits and a walk to win his second straight start.

"I didn't really have my best stuff tonight but I located my fastball when I needed to and I got some early outs in each inning when I needed to so overall it was pretty good," Shields said of his outing.

Billy Butler and Alcides Escobar had two hits and Alex Gordon drove in a pair of runs for the Royals.

Danny Salazar (0-3) took the loss after yielding five runs -- four earned -- on seven hits in just 4 1/3 innings.

Moustakas erased a 1-0 Royals deficit in the fourth inning with one swing of the bat. Hosmer and Butler both singled to start the frame. Gordon and Salvador Perez were retired for two quick outs, but Moustakas made Salazar pay by teeing off on a hanging breaking ball, sending it well over the wall in right.

"He hit it a long way," Cleveland manager Terry Francona said of Moustakas' homer. "From there, I thought (Salazar) looked a little frustrated after that and the ball started getting up."

Escobar then singled, stole second and moved to third on Yan Gomes' errant throw. He scored on Jarrod Dyson's bunt single for a 4-1 lead.

Butler followed Hosmer's double in the fifth with a two-bagger of his own, narrowly missing a home run to straightaway center field, to plate another Kansas City run and chase Salazar from the contest.

It was 5-2 in the seventh when Hosmer drove home Omar Infante with a double to left. Gordon's two-run double in the ninth resulted in the final tally.

Michael Bourn's RBI single in the second inning and Gomes' RBI double in the sixth resulted in the lone Cleveland runs. Bourn, Gomes, Nick Swisher and Michael Brantley all had two hits in the setback.

Game Notes

Cleveland's brief two-game winning streak came to an end. The Indians have lost four of six overall ... Cleveland went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base ... Danny Duffy pitched two scoreless innings of relief for KC and Aaron Crow tossed one scoreless frame. Neither pitcher has surrendered an earned run yet this season.