Kluber leaves early in Cleveland’s rout of Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Corey Kluber put together another Cy Young-worthy performance before leaving with a sprained right ankle Friday night, and Jay Bruce homered twice to help the Cleveland Indians rout the Kansas City Royals 10-1 in the opener of their three-game series.

Kluber (12-3) was cruising along until there was one out in the sixth inning, and Eric Hosmer sent a grounder to the right side of the infield. Kluber winced coming off the mound to cover the bag, and manager Terry Francona and the team's training staff quickly jogged out to the mound.

The two-time All-Star faced one more batter before Andrew Miller relieved him. Kluber allowed a homer to Brandon Moss along with five more hits, striking out four and walking one.

Jason Kipnis and Bruce took Ian Kennedy (4-9) deep in the first inning, and Bruce added a three-run shot off the Kansas City bullpen in the seventh to finish with five RBIs.

Edwin Encarnacion hit the Indians' fourth homer of the night leading off the ninth.

Kennedy was pounded for five runs on six hits and two walks in 2 2/3 innings in another forgettable night at Kauffman Stadium. It was his 15th straight winless home start dating to August 2016, breaking the Royals' franchise record held by Mac Suzuki and Glendon Rusch.

The AL Central-leading Indians were coming off a double-header in Minnesota on Thursday night, while the chasing Royals had the day off. But it was Cleveland that looked energized in the first of 10 remaining matchups between teams that have dominated the division.

The Indians scored three times in the first inning, gave back a run on Moss' deep shot to center in the second, then scratched out two more runs in the third to chase Kennedy.

ASTROS 3, ATHLETICS 1 Dallas Keuchel threw seven shutout innings, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve homered and Houston beat Oakland. Keuchel (11-2) allowed three hits, walked one and struck out three. He had his second straight solid outing after allowing one run in 6 2/3 innings Sunday at Texas.

WHITE SOX 4, RANGERS 3 Nicky Delmonico lined an inside-the-park home run in the eighth inning, his second go-ahead homer of the game, and Chicago beat Texas to end a five-game losing streak. Delmonico’s fifth homer eluded a leaping Nomar Mazara, bouncing off the wall as the right fielder crumpled on the warning track clutching his left knee. Second baseman Rougned Odor sprinted to retrieve the long carom, but Delmonico beat the throw with a head-first slide.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

CARDINALS 11, PIRATES 10 Matt Carpenter hit a three-run homer in the second inning to make it 5-1 and St. Louis went on to outscore Pittsburgh. The Cardinals, whose lead reached 11-3 in the eighth inning, have taken the first two games of a four-game series against the Pirates to remain 1 1/2 games behind the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs.

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