Cleveland Indians routed, nearly no-hit in embarrassing loss to Royals

The Cleveland Indians suffered an embarrassing 11-1 loss to Kansas City Thursday as they dropped three out of four to last-place Royals.

The Cleveland Indians week went from bad to worse Thursday evening as they fell 11-1 to Kansas City as the Tribe dropped three out of four at Progressive Field to the last place Royals

Despite the rough loss, starting pitcher, Aaron Civale tossed six innings for the Indians for the ninth straight time as he allowed four runs, seven hits, a walk and struck out seven.

Three of those runs came in the top of the third as Hunter Dozier and Maikel Franco hit RBI singles while the fourth came in the top of the sixth as Edward Olivares hit a solo home run.

The Royals did much of their damage off of Dominic Leone and rookie Kyle Nelson. In the top of the seventh, Franco smacked a three-run home run off Leone to put Kansas City up 7-0 and in the top of the eighth, the Royals rallied for four runs off Nelson, which included a three-run home run off the bat of Adalberto Mondesi.

Meanwhile, Royals rookie right-hander Brady Singer absolutely dominated the Indians offense. Singer did surrender a hit until the bottom of the eighth inning as he tossed eight innings, allowed just one hit, walked two and struck out eight in a winning effort.

The Indians avoided being shutout thanks to a Mike Freeman RBI single off Matt Harvey in the bottom of the ninth, but it was far too little as they dropped the ball game in embarrassing fashion.

With the loss, the Indians dropped to 26-18 on the season and now behind both the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins in the AL Central standings. Meanwhile, Kansas City improved to 16-28 on the year.

The Royals and Indians will not face off again in 2020 as they split their season series at 5-5, with the Royals posting a 4-2 record at Progressive Field.

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On Deck: The Indians will look to bounce back Friday when they open a pivotal three-game series at Target Field against the Minnesota Twins. The Tribe will send their ace to the mound in Shane Bieber will face off with fellow right-hander Kenta Maeda. First pitch from Minnesota is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. EST.