<table> </table> CLEVELAND | Royals manager Trey Hillman was in no mood to handle second-guesses Wednesday night on his decision to pull starter Gil Meche after his bullpen imploded in an 8-5 loss to the Cleveland Indians.</p><p>&#8220;Easy to second-guess?&#8221; Hillman said. &#8220;Well, he&#8217;s over 100 pitches. It&#8217;s late in the season. He&#8217;s not going to have any extra rest. We&#8217;re already falling apart with our rotation.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t understand why there would be second-guessing. It&#8217;s a no-brainer for me. But if people want to second-guess that decision, that&#8217;s fine.&#8221;</p><p>Let&#8217;s back up.</p><p>Meche was at 104 pitches and had retired 17 straight hitters when told he was done. The Royals led 5-3 at the time, and Meche had allowed just one earned run.</p><p>&#8220;I felt good,&#8221; Meche said. &#8220;I felt fine.&#8221;</p><p>The decision couldn&#8217;t have turned out worse.</p><p>The Indians struck for five runs in the eighth inning against Ramon Ramirez and usually impregnable Joakim Soria. The crushing blow was a three-run homer that Soria, 1-3, surrendered to Franklin Gutierrez.</p><p>&#8220;Anytime you snap one away late like that,&#8221; Indians manager Eric Wedge said, &#8220;it feels good.&#8221;</p><p>Cleveland managed just five hits but four left the park, including Gutierrez&#8217;s no-doubt bomb. The Mexicutioner suffered his third blown save in 36 opportunities.</p><p>&#8220;Anytime I go on the mound,&#8221; Soria said, &#8220;I&#8217;m trying to do my best. If they hit me, they hit me with my best that I can do that night. That&#8217;s it. I&#8217;m not a machine. I&#8217;m not perfect. Sometimes, that is going to happen.&#8221;</p><p>Soria matched a career high by allowing three runs.</p><p>Juan Rincon, 3-3, got the victory for pitching a one-two-three eighth in relief of starter Zach Jackson. Jensen Lewis closed the victory for his fourth save.</p><p>It was an appalling loss for the Royals even by the standards of their ongoing collapse. They have now lost 11 of their last 13 in falling to 55-71. They are also 1-7 on a road trip that concludes today against 17-2 Cliff Lee.</p><p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t lose ballgames like that,&#8221; catcher John Buck said. &#8220;You just can&#8217;t.&#8221;</p><p>The Royals had won Meche&#8217;s last eight starts &#8212; which represent exactly half of their total victories since July 6. They should have won this one.</p><p>Meche allowed two hits in seven innings, striking out nine and walking one. He gave up a two-run homer in the first inning to Jhonny Peralta after an error by third baseman Alex Gordon extended the inning.</p><p>Kelly Shoppach&#8217;s one-out homer boosted Cleveland&#8217;s lead to 3-1 in the second inning before Meche went into shutdown mode. He started the seventh inning by striking out Peralta with a 95-mph fastball on his 94th pitch.</p><p>The Royals erased their two-run deficit by scoring four times in a scary fifth inning. Gordon and Buck led off with singles before Jackson hit Mitch Maier in the face with a high-and-tight fastball.</p><p>The Royals led 5-3, and Meche protected that lead through the seventh on a cool night with temperatures falling into the low 60s.</p><p>Everything changed when Hillman went to the bullpen.