Kansas City Royals prove to be a pain for Cleveland Indians again

Adalberto Mondesi smacked a tiebreaking three-run homer in the sixth inning and the Kansas City Royals went on to a 9-4 victory over the visiting Cleveland Indians on Saturday night.

Whit Merrifield went 2-for-4 with a two-run double to match his career-best hitting streak of 19 games. Merrifield also stole two bases to take over the major league lead with 44 as the Royals won for the fifth time in six games.

Alcides Escobar and Meibrys Viloria each had three hits as Kansas City racked up 16 overall.

Jose Ramirez went 3-for-4 with a homer and Melky Cabrera had two hits for the American League Central champion Indians. Cleveland has dropped two of the first three games of the four-game set.

Royals right-hander Jakob Junis (9-12) gave up three runs and eight hits over six innings while winning his third straight decision. He struck out six and walked one.

Indians ace right-hander Corey Kluber gave up three runs and seven hits over five innings in his final tune-up prior to the postseason. Kluber struck out six and walked two.

Cleveland left-hander Andrew Miller(2-4) relieved Kluber to start the bottom of the sixth with the score tied at 3. Escobar singled to left with one out and Merrifield drew a walk with two out before Mondesi pounced on the first pitch and sent the ball over the fence in center to give the Royals a 6-3 lead.

Kansas City continued battering Miller with three consecutive singles, the last by Ryan O'Hearn to increase the lead to four.

The Royals added two more runs in the seventh. Brian Goodwin led off with a double and scored on Escobar's single to right, and Alex Gordon added a run-scoring single later in the inning to make it 9-3.

Ramirez slugged a leadoff homer in the eighth -- his 39th of the season -- to pull the Indians within five.

Earlier, Edwin Encarnacion hit a first-inning sacrifice fly to center to get the Indians on the board.

Kansas City tied the score in the second as Jorge Bonifacio and Escobar reached on infield hits and Viloria singled to right to score Bonifacio.

Cleveland had runners on first and second with two out in the third when Yonder Alonso singled to right to give the Indians a 2-1 lead. Cabrera followed with a run-scoring single to right to make it a two-run margin.

The Royals had runners on first and second with two out in the fourth before Merrifield smacked a two-run double to tie the score at 3.

(With inputs from agencies.)