Royals Can't Complete Indian Sweep

Kansas City, MO (Sports Network) - Jason Michaels hit a three-run home run and Jeremy Sowers picked up his first win of the year with seven strong innings as Cleveland crushed Kansas City, 10-3, to avoid a three-game sweep. Casey Blake hit a bases-clearing triple in the fifth inning and Sowers (1-4) scattered six hits and gave up just one run for the Indians, who won for the seventh time in their last 10 games. Ryan Garko finished 3-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored for Cleveland. Esteban German went 4-for-5 with a run scored for the Royals, who had won eight of their last 10 games. Jorge De La Rosa (4-4) had a rough outing, yielding nine runs on six hits with seven walks in 4 1/3 innings. With two outs and nobody on base in the first, the Indians loaded the bases on a pair of walks sandwiched around a Victor Martinez single. Garko chased two runs home with a single to left and Michaels followed with a three-run blast to give Cleveland a 5-0 lead. Martinezs two-out RBI single in the second gave the Indians a six-run advantage before Kansas City got on the board in the third inning on Mark Grudzielaneks sacrifice fly. Cleveland, though, answered with four runs in the fifth inning to build an insurmountable lead. De La Rosa departed after walking Josh Barfield to load the bases. Royals reliever Joel Peralta got Andy Marte to pop out in foul territory for the second out of the inning, but he followed that with a walk to Grady Sizemore to force in a run. Blake followed with a triple to give the Indians a nine-run advantage. The Royals got two runs in the eighth. Shane Costas pinch-hit, one-out single to center scored German, who led off the inning with a single. Roberto Hernandez then walked Alex Gordon to load the bases and Aaron Fultz entered the game for Cleveland and walked Ryan Shealy to force in a run. However, Mike Koplove took over for Fultz and got John Buck to line out to end the inning. Game Notes Despite the win, the Indians have lost 9 of their last 13 games at Kauffman Stadium...Attendance was 11,681.