Royals offense breaks out in 10-5 victory over Indians

The Royals overcame a shaky outing from Danny Duffy in a 10-5 victory over the Indians on Thursday. Salvador Perez paced the offense with two doubles, Paulo Orlando raked a two-run triple to key a three-run fourth inning and Bubba Starling notched a pair of hits.

Duffy yielded three runs in two innings of work. He gave up six hits. He lamented struggles with his command, but sounded content with the outing.

“It wasn’t great,” Duffy said. “But it wasn’t as bad as it looked on paper. I need to be better at putting people away.”

The Royals played imprecise defense at the start. Moises Sierra misplayed a leadoff single into a two-base error. The Indians’ Michael Bourn scored soon after on a groundout. Duffy failed to cover first base on a grounder to the right side, but still escaped the inning with only one run allowed. In his next frame, he gave up a two-run homer to backup catcher Roberto Perez.

“I feel great,” Duffy said. “I missed a couple of locations, and they made them count.”

The subsequent pitchers did a better job. In his first action since last spring, Luke Hochevar contributed a scoreless frame. He worked around a two-out walk, freezing Bourn with a curveball for a strikeout.

Franklin Morales, who has a solid chance to make the club as a lefty reliever, turned in a spotless frame of his own. Casey Coleman yielded a two-run homer to Carlos Santana in the fifth inning. Ryan Madson pitched a scoreless sixth.

This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Royals offense breaks out in 10-5 victory over Indians."