MLB Game Preview - Cleveland at Kansas City

Sun Aug 20, 2017 2:15 PM EDT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Cleveland Indians' formidable 11-game, four-city trip ends Sunday against the Kansas City Royals.

It featured stops in Tampa Bay, a makeup game in Boston, a doubleheader in Minnesota and three games at Kauffman Stadium.

Cleveland won eight of the first 10.

"That's why we go day-to-day," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "Other than lining your underwear up, it's day-to-day. I just think it can look daunting, and there's no reason to think like that. Just show up and play, and you know, do the same thing tomorrow."

The first-place Indians, who lead the American League Central by six games over Minnesota and 7 1/2 over Kansas City, have outscored their opponents 54-19 on the trip. They are a season-high 15 games above .500.

"We're on a roll right now," said Trevor Bauer, who started and won Saturday night in the 5-0 shutout of the Royals. "I don't think anyone is doing anything abnormal. We're all just pitching how we can pitch.

"It's not like anyone is just on this unconscious roll. This is how we can pitch. Staying healthy is one thing, and executing pitches and all of the things that go into success, you know, got to continue doing that. The work you put in between starts, staying on routine, stuff like that. But, I don't think anyone in here is surprised at what we're doing right now."

While the Indians are steamrolling opponents, the Royals are going backward. A nine-game winning streak in late July, lifted them to seven-games above .500, but have lost 13 of 19 since July 31.

The Royals' rotation has a 5.99 ERA in August.

"It's just a run they're in," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "I don't feel like it's fatigue. These guys train for this. They've done it their whole careers. Most of them are veteran guys. They've been through it many times. It's just a bit of a slump, like hitters go in slumps; pitchers go in slumps, too, a little bit."

The Royals, who entered the series 5 1/2 games behind the Indians, visit Cleveland next weekend for a three-game series.

"When any team is playing a team in their division that they're chasing and they're in a position to have a couple of series pretty close together where you have the opportunity to close the gap and unfortunately the first two games we did the opposite," said Jason Vargas, who absorbed the loss Saturday.

"We still have a lot of good baseball in us. We've got a lot of talent in this room. We all know when we get going and we put good runs together, we're pretty hard to beat."

Jason Hammel (5-9, 4.74 ERA) will start the series finale for the Royals. He has pitched well against the Indians this season, going 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in two starts. He has limited them a .178 batting average.

After beginning the season, 1-6 with a 6.18 ERA, Hammel is 4-3 with a 3.89 ERA since June 1. He, however, does not have a victory in his last five home starts (0-2).

The Indians will start right-hander Danny Salazar, who is 2-0 with a 1.39 ERA in five starts since the All-Star break.

Salazar is 0-2 with a 4.63 ERA over 11 2/3 innings against the Royals this year.

Eric Hosmer hits well against Salazar (13-for-32) with three home runs and eight RBIs. Lorenzo Cain is 10-for-28 while Mike Moustakas is 7-for-29 with two home runs and five RBIs.