Written by Adam Burke

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Like the Indians have so many times in the second half this season, they lost on the road, falling to the Royals 6-3 in the first game of their final road trip this season. The Indians failed on most of their run-scoring opportunities while the Royals cashed in most of theirs and that was the difference in the game.

The night had a promising start for the Indians as they had runners on second and third with one out in the first inning after back-to-back singles from Shin-Soo Choo and Jason Kipnis and a sacrifice bunt from Asdrubal Cabrera. After Carlos Santana struck out, the Royals opted to walk Michael Brantley and go after Travis Hafner. The move worked in their favor as Hafner grounded out to end the inning. Justin Masterson's outing started well, with three groundouts in the first inning, but the second and third innings were a different story.

After the Indians went down in order, the Royals got on the board first. Jeff Francoeur singled with one out, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and scored a batter later when Brayan Pena singled to left. After an infield single, Irving Falu singled in Pena, but was thrown out trying to go to second. The Indians answered in the third, plating a run on a Michael Brantley single. Kansas City answered that immediately with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third.

Nobody scored again until the sixth when Mike Moustakas drove in a run with his second sacrifice fly of the game. The Indians made it a 4-3 game in the seventh with a two-run single from Santana. But, that was as close as they would get as the Royals scored two insurance runs in the eighth inning to push the lead to 6-3.

The Indians went down in a hurry in the ninth inning, falling to 62-89. The Royals improved to 69-81 with the win. Justin Masterson took the loss, falling to 11-15. Luis Mendoza improved to 8-9. Greg Holland picked up his 15th save.

Stat of the Night: Between Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez, those two have 36% of the Indians losses this season.

Player of the Game: Carlos Santana drove in two of the Indians three runs, though he blew a couple good opportunities earlier in the game.

Tomorrow's Game: Ubaldo Jimenez will get jiggy wit Will Smith at 7:10 p.m.