KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)—Like so many of his slumping teammates, Ken Harvey was starting to wonder if he would ever get another meaningful hit.
He did Sunday.
Harvey’s single broke an eighth-inning tied and Benito Santiago doubled him home in the Kansas City Royals’ 5-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
It was the first RBI in 16 at-bats for Harvey, who’s been struggling at the plate along with Mike Sweeney, Carlos Beltran and Joe Randa.
Harvey had been joking with third-base coach John Miserock).
“I said I thought I’d have 400 at-bats with no RBIs,” Harvey recalled. “I just tried to stay positive and wait my turn. I knew they’d come sooner or later.”
In going 4-2 during the first week of the season and winning three of four from the Indians, the Royals came from behind three times and rallied in the seventh, eighth or ninth innings in all four wins.
“We’re lucky to be 4-2,” said Randa, who was batting .157 before getting two singles and a double. “But it’s also a good sign of a good team because our strength of our club is not in full swing.”
Cleveland stranded 12 runners. The Indians headed to their home opener Monday against Minnesota with a 2-5 record and three blown saves.
“It’s a frustrating trip,” third baseman Casey Blake said. “We’re 2-5 when we could be at least 5-2. We’ll be better because of this.”
Harvey hit his go-ahead single off Rafael Betancourt after Jose Jimenez (0-1) hit Mike Sweeney with a pitch leading off the inning and walked Randa with one out. Betancourt gave up hits to his only two batters.
“We did what we needed to do in almost every game on this trip to give ourselves a chance to win,” Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. “Obviously, we lost games we should have won.”
Scott Sullivan (2-0) pitched one scoreless inning, and Curtis Leskanic walked two in the ninth before finishing for his second save.
Cleveland had tied it 3-all in the seventh with the help of a throwing error by pitcher Jason Grimsley that left Ronnie Belliard sprawled on the field.
Grimsley picked up Belliard’s slow roller in front of the mound and threw off balance toward first. The ball went behind Belliard’s back as he crashed into the shoulder of Sweeney, who was reaching for the ball. Belliard lay motionless for several minutes but got back up and stayed in the game.
Coco Crisp scored on the error. His double off Sweeney had driven in Travis Hafner with the first run of the inning.
Dennys Reyes, the fifth left-hander to start a game for the Royals this year, allowed one run, four hits and three walks in five innings. Reyes, who came to camp as a non-roster invitee, made his first start since Sept. 14, 2002.
“Reyes was the key to our win,” Royals manager Tony Pena said. “I am very, very pleased with the way Reyes threw the ball.”
Cleveland starter Jason Davis got his second straight no-decision, allowing three runs, six hits and four walks in six innings.
Tim Laker’s RBI single put Cleveland ahead of the first, but Santiago grounded into a run-scoring double play in the second.
Kansas City made it 3-1 in the sixth on Sweeney’s RBI single and JuanGonzalez’s sacrifice fly.
Notes
The Indians have scored first in all but one of their seven games. … Royals’ starters are 0-2 with four no-decisions, the first time since 1992 no starter has won in the first six games. … The Indians have 10 or more hits already in four games. Last year, they had 59 games with double-digit hits. … Belliard reached four times with two singles, a walk and the error but wasstranded each time.
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