The Kansas City Royals snapped their lengthy skid in emphatic fashion while continuing their recent dominance of the slumping Cleveland Indians the last time they took the field.
The Royals will try to add to that success and register back-to-back wins for the first time in a little more than a month Wednesday night.
Kansas City (42-60) scored all of its runs in Tuesday's series opener in the first three innings while cruising to an 8-3 victory and ending a five-game losing streak. Jarrod Dyson finished a home run shy of the cycle and Alcides Escobar matched a season high with three RBIs.
Escobar's three-hit performance was his 34th multihit game and raised his average to a team-leading .307.
"He's been doing that all year," manager Ned Yost said.
The win was also the Royals' fifth in their past six games against Cleveland, which has dropped four in a row and nine of 12.
The Indians (50-53) will seek to avoid matching their season-high losing streak with help from Zach McAllister (4-2, 3.18 ERA), who has allowed three runs or fewer in each of his last three starts.
The right-hander, though, has received one run of support in each of his past two outings. After losing to Baltimore on July 21, he did not get a decision Thursday in a 5-3 win over Detroit.
In his first start against Kansas City, McAllister will pitch opposite Luis Mendoza (4-7, 4.47), who hasn't gotten too much support during his return to the rotation.
The right-hander is 2-4 with a 3.67 ERA over his last eight starts and has received a combined 13 runs. He's gotten four in each of those wins.
Following a 7-3 victory over Minnesota on July 21, Mendoza lost 4-1 in Seattle on Thursday after giving up four runs and nine hits over five innings.
"He was kind of all over the place," manager Ned Yost told the team's official website. "He really struggled to command the ball down, got pitches up. But the thing about Mendoza is he competes. It was a grind for him out there today."
Mendoza yielded two runs and four hits over five innings during a 4-2 win in Cleveland on April 26. That came 11 days after he gave up a career-high nine runs - five earned - in a 13-7 home defeat to the Indians.
Jason Kipnis is batting .353 (12 for 34) with two home runs and seven RBIs against the Royals this season, while Casey Kotchman is 4 for 6 lifetime against Mendoza.
