Tribe’s 5 HRs bounce Royals in rubber game

KANSAS CITY — Power was the theme of the day for the Indians as they launched five home runs and received a dominant outing from Carlos Carrasco en route to an 11-4 rout over the Royals on Wednesday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

Led by a two-homer, six-RBI performance by rookie Tyler Naquin, the first-place Indians took two of three in the series. Cleveland now has a 7 1/2-game lead over second-place Detroit and a nine-game edge over Kansas City in the American League Central.

Mike Napoli, Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis joined in the homer parade, which chased Royals righty Ian Kennedy from the contest after 4 1/3 innings. Kennedy was on the hook for four of the home runs as the Indians used a seven-run fifth inning to run away with this one.

Carrasco (7-3, 2.31 ERA) picked up the win after spinning six shutout innings, in which he struck out six, walked two and allowed just one hit. Over the three-game series, Cleveland’s rotation combined for a 0.92 ERA with 21 strikeouts and six walks in 19 2/3 innings.

Kansas City finally broke through for three runs off Indians reliever Austin Adams in the eighth inning. Christian Colon, Cheslor Cuthbert, Alex Gordon and Drew Butera each knocked in a run.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDNaquin building ROY case: There is still a long way to go in the season, but Naquin is in position to push for votes in the AL’s Rookie of the Year Award race. His two home runs (solo shot in the third and three-run blast in the fifth) gave him 12 on the year (all coming since his return from Triple-A on June 2). Naquin, who also had a two-run double in the fourth inning, leads all AL rookie hitters with a 2.2 WAR (per Fangraphs.com).

Kennedy’s streak continues: The Royals have been …

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