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KANSAS CITY Denny McLain Jersey , Mo. (AP) — Jason Kipnis had been mired in such a batting slump that the Indians second baseman had resorted to watching old film of himself, trying to discover what had changed in the past couple years.He finally noticed a subtle, almost imperceptible difference in his hand position, so he rolled up a magazine and began mimicking his old swing in his hotel room. And while it felt a bit odd, and looked just as goofy, Kipnis nevertheless went to sleep feeling as if something had finally clicked.Did it ever.Kipnis proceeded to club four hits and drive in four runs Sunday, the big shot an inside-the-park homer in the ninth inning, to lead Cleveland’s 12-5 rout of the Kansas City Royals.“Obviously every day I’ve been working to snap out of it. It’s been ugly to watch and worse to go out there,” said Kipnis, who is still hitting just .223 this season. “I came in with better spirits and said, ‘Let’s see where it goes from here.'”Kipnis nearly went 5 for 5, but a baserunning mix-up by Melky Cabrera on his flyball in the second resulted in a fielder’s choice. Kipnis later had a pair of singles and a double before the homer.“He swung the bat very well,” Indians manager Terry Francona said, “and I’ll tell you what, what a lift that would give us. He’s showed flashes, but if he could get hot, what a lift it would be.”Shane Bieber (8-2) allowed four runs for Cleveland — on homers by Whit Merrifield http://www.tigersfanproshop.com/authentic-joe-jimenez-jersey , Salvador Perez and Lucas Duda. He departed after allowing six hits and striking out seven in 5 1/3 innings, but it was still enough for the AL Central-leading Indians to improve to 10-1 when facing a series sweep.Right-hander Jorge Lopez (0-4) allowed five runs, all in the fourth inning, on five hits and three walks for Kansas City. He was lifted after throwing 79 pitches in just four innings.“You give a chance to your guys when you go deep in a game and I couldn’t do it today. I need to get better for sure,” Lopez said. “We’ll see about going forward from this start.”The Royals, who had snapped their own five-game skid Friday night, looked as if they’d keep their momentum going when Merrifield took Bieber deep to left field leading off the game.It was his fifth career leadoff homer and second this year.But the Indians answered with their big fourth inning, when six consecutive batters reached on four hits and a pair of walks. And after Perez went deep in the bottom half, the Indians added two more runs on Francisco Lindor’s two-out single in the sixth to add to their cushion.Edwin Encarnacion continued the offensive outburst — which came after the Indians were held to one run on five hits on Saturday night — when he took Royals reliever Jake Newberry deep in the eighth.“It’s been a tough trip for a lot of guys, but they’re going to be OK,” Francona said. “We needed to find a way today, whether it was ugly or whatever, and we did that.”O’HEARN IN LFRoyals 1B/DH Ryan O’Hearn got the start in left field, the first time he’s played the outfield in the big leagues. O’Hearn played 13 games there at Triple-A Omaha this season, and manager Ned Yost said the move was designed to “find a way to keep his bat in there.”TRAINER’S ROOMIndians: RHP Cody Anderson (Tommy John surgery) struck out two in a scoreless inning Saturday night for the club’s Arizona League team. It was his first game since September 2016. “No red flags or anything,” Francona said. … OF Brandon Guyer is getting a couple days off after getting hit where the foot meets the ankle, or as Francona called it Kirk Gibson Jersey , the “fankle.”Royals: RHP Ian Kennedy (left oblique strain) threw 60 pitches last Friday without any problems and expects to make a rehab start Wednesday, Yost said. … OF Jorge Soler (fractured left toe) will begin a rehab assignment in the next couple of days, but even then he is unlikely to play in the outfield. “I don’t think so,” Yost said. “DH him some, give him some at-bats, make sure he’s ready to go for spring training, which he will be.”UP NEXTThe Indians and Royals will both take Monday off before beginning their next series. Cleveland is back home to face Minnesota with Carlos Carrasco (15-7, 3.55 ERA) on the mound, and Kansas City begins a five-game trip to Detroit and Baltimore with Jakob Junis (6-12, 4.70 ERA) getting the first start. HOUSTON (AP) — With the way Alex Bregman has been swinging the bat lately, Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch said it’s a shame the team has an off day on Thursday.Bregman homered and had a career-high five RBIs to lead the Astros to a 9-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night. Bregman extended his on-base streak to 33 games, a span where he’s hitting .360 with an on-base percentage of .449.“It’s a step in the right direction, but there’s still so much to improve on and so much to get better at,” Bregman said. “That’s what this game is the best — it’s a game of failure. You can be on top of the world one day and 0-for-4 the next day. You can’t ever get too high or too low.”Evan Gattis also hit his 25th home run of the year in the win.The defending champs have won five straight, finishing a 10-game homestand with a 7-3 record. Houston has won 12 of its last 15 games entering a three-game series in Boston against the team with the best record in baseball.Bregman gave the Astros a 2-0 lead in the third inning with his 29th homer of the season, a line-drive shot off Jake Odorizzi into the left-field Crawford Boxes. He later added a three-run double off the left-field wall with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, his MLB-leading 47th double of the season http://www.tigersfanproshop.com/authentic-joe-jimenez-jersey , to put Houston up 9-1.“He’s putting up so many quality at-bats, one after another,” Hinch said. “It’s hard to expect it at this level because it’s not as easy as these guys make it look sometimes, but he’s getting great pitches to hit. He’s not missing them — he’s doing damage.”Gattis extended Houston’s lead to 4-0 with a two-run homer in the fourth inning off Odorizzi, also to left field on the first pitch of his at-bat.Houston went up 5-1 with an RBI single to right from Yuli Gurriel off Odorizzi (5-10), who allowed five runs on four hits and four walks in 4 2/3 innings.“We just had trouble containing some of the guys that are extremely hot right now,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “Bregman’s probably as hot as anybody I’ve seen for a while in terms of just consistently good at-bats and driving the baseball.”At one point, the Twins even tried a four-man outfield shift against Bregman.Houston starter Framber Valdez (3-1) went 5 1/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits and three walks while striking out five. He’s the first pitcher in club history — and just the sixth in MLB history — to begin his career with four straight appearances of at least 4 1/3 innings, allowing one or fewer runs in each of those outings.Valdez struggled with his accuracy early, throwing two four-pitch walks to his first three batters faced before escaping the first inning with a double play, a turn of events that Valdez later called a “big relief.” The Twins’ lone run off Valdez came in the fifth inning on a solo home run from Willians Astudillo.“He worked out of it, I just held firm,” Hinch said. “I almost got the bullpen up in the first inning. He did work his way through that very weird line for him the first couple of innings because it could have imploded easily on him.”Jose Altuve finally snapped a lengthy hitless streak with a double down the left-field line in the sixth inning that scored George Springer. After striking out in the first inning and popping out in the third, Altuve stretched his hitless streak to 19 at-bats, the longest hitless streak of his career.“I tell you one thing, Jose Altuve is going to be the MVP that he was for the rest of the season Victor Martinez Jersey ,” Bregman said. “He’s a special hitter and he always makes my job a lot easier.”TRAINER’S ROOMTwins: 3B Miguel Sano wanted to take batting practice on Wednesday afternoon, but the Twins ultimately held him out as a precaution. Sano was carted off the field Tuesday night with a lower left leg bruise suffered after he slid into second base. He was walking with a limp on Wednesday, but Minnesota manager Paul Molitor said there’s a “good chance” he plays on Friday. . OF Eddie Rosario (sore quadriceps) took batting practice and could return on Friday.Astros: RHP Charlie Morton (shoulder) will likely start for Houston on Saturday in Boston, barring any setback, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. Morton was placed on the 10-day disabled list on Aug. 29 with right shoulder discomfort. If Morton is unable to start, rookie Josh James will likely start, Hinch said. . RHP Lance McCullers (forearm) threw a brief bullpen session off the mound on Wednesday, Hinch said. . IF/OF Marwin Gonzalez (oblique) and RP Hector Rondon (wrist) are expected to be available for the Boston series, Hinch said.BREGMAN’S BATOver the 10-game homestand, Bregman hit .486 with seven doubles, five homers and 17 RBIs. He has hit four homers in his last five games and has recorded an extra-base hit and an RBI in five straight games, the longest such streak for an Astros hitter since Morgan Ensberg homered in six straight games in April 2006.UP NEXTTwins: Stephen Gonsalves (0-2, 9.90 ERA) will serve as the so-called ‘primary pitcher’ in the Twins’ third attempt at the experimental approach of starting a relief pitcher for an inning or two as an ‘opener’ before a primary pitcher enters. The Twins host Kansas City on Friday.Astros: Gerrit Cole (13-5, 2.86 ERA) will start for Houston when they visit Boston on Friday night for the start of a three-game series. Cole is 1-0 in one start against the Red Sox this season where he went seven innings and allowed three runs, five hits, a walk and seven strikeouts in a 7-3 win on June 1.