<table> </table> So in comes Cliff Lee, presumptive Cy Young winner, and, wait, <em>this</em> is it? Low 90s fastball? Good curveball, slider, and change-up?</p><p><em>This</em> is how the guy is going Pedro Martinez circa 1999 on the American League?</p><p>Turns out, yes.</p><p>Lee ran his record to 21-2, lowered his ERA to 2.28 and has now allowed just seven earned runs in his last 50 innings after pitching the Indians to a 3-1 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday.</p><p>&#8220;He comes after you enough to where you&#8217;re still thinking, &#8216;We can get him,&#8217; &#8221; said Royals shortstop Mike Aviles. &#8220;He throws a lot of strikes, so in your head, a pitcher that&#8217;s going to throw strikes, you know you&#8217;re going to get something to hit. It&#8217;s just that he throws the ball right there for you to hit and then at the last second, it moves just enough so that it&#8217;s off the barrel.&#8221;</p><p>Lee&#8217;s continued brilliance was the story of Sunday, a break from a string of mostly meaningless September games for the Royals and a chance to face the best pitcher in baseball.</p><p>The Royals got a good pitching performance of their own, from Zack Greinke, who gave up three runs over six innings in taking the loss. Greinke, now 10-10 with a 3.70 ERA, struck out eight while walking two and giving up five hits.</p><p>Ends up he gave up all the runs Cleveland needed in the first inning, on a two-run single by Victor Martinez, capping an 11-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off a 98-mph fastball before squeezing a 90-mph slider into right field.</p><p>After the game, the mind&#8217;s eye being what it is, Greinke said he threw &#8220;probably 15 of my best pitches&#8221; to Martinez.</p><p>&#8220;I pitched to him about as good as I can pitch to him, and he still got a hit,&#8221; Greinke said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a great hitter, everybody knows that.&#8221;</p><p>Also of note from that at-bat is an addition to the list of memorable Royals moments this season:</p><p>Indians shortstop Jhonny Peralta &#8212; about 15 pounds heavier than Usain Bolt and a few mphs slower &#8212; scored from first base &#8230; on a single.</p><p>To be fair, Peralta was running on the pitch, and Martinez&#8217;s single found a big hole in right-center field. But Peralta has the speed you&#8217;d expect from someone with eight steals in a six-year big-league career, and he scored from first, without a throw.</p><p>&#8220;I really don&#8217;t feel like that was a lack of effort, or lack of hustle, or lack of defensive positioning,&#8221; manager Trey Hillman said. &#8220;It was just where the ball fell and the fact that they were moving and Peralta was getting after it.&#8221;</p><p>The Royals got their run in the sixth inning, when Alberto Callaspo&#8217;s single drove in Jos&#233; Guillen. Other than that, the Royals predictably struggled against Lee. They&#8217;ve now scored three or fewer runs in 18 of their last 29 games.</p><p>Esteban German had the only extra-base hit for Kansas City, a leadoff double in the fifth that was wasted when Joey Gathright struck out, David DeJesus flew out and Aviles grounded out.</p><p>&#8220;No doubt, if you have a chance against a guy as good and talented as Cliff Lee is, you hope to execute there,&#8221; Hillman said. &#8220;Obviously we didn&#8217;t execute there and get that job done.&#8221;</p><p>After the game, in the visitors&#8217; clubhouse, Lee sounded as impressed with himself as a grown man who just tied his shoes.</p><p>He talked of throwing strikes, always his top priority, and a couple of mistakes that led to giving up hits on 0-2 and 1-2 counts. Lee&#8217;s postgame comes straight from the Crash Davis handbook, where he talks about ignoring the Cy Young possibilities and concentrating solely on his preparation for each start.</p><p>To drive that point home, he mentioned that he didn&#8217;t even know who his next opponent would be.</p><p>Told it would be the Royals in Cleveland this weekend, Lee nodded his head.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s good,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;ll try to do more of the same of what I did today.&#8221;