CLEVELAND (92.3 The Fan) - Battered and bruised, the Kansas City Royals were just what the Cleveland Indians needed to get well – at least for a day.

Jason Kipnis singled three times and drove in a pair, Jose Lopez collected two hits and drove in three as the Indians ended a three-game slide with an 8-5 win over Kansas City Monday afternoon at Progressive Field.

“We knew we wanted this game after what happened in Chicago,” Kipnis said. “We knew we had to bounce back. We weren’t distraught, we weren’t disappointed and weren’t like ‘Ah, man what happened?’ We knew it wasn’t going to spiral into anything.

“We wanted to bounce back and we did a nice job of that.”

Josh Tomlin returned from the DL and allowed four runs in five innings to pick up his second win of the season. He also helped the Indians bounce back from a tough trip to Chicago.

“That series was kind of a train-wreck for us,” Tomlin said. “After that series you want to come home and get a win and fortunately we did today.”

Tomlin, who threw 81 pitches, made his first start since May 7 after sitting out with right wrist soreness.

“It’s been a long time since I had been out there in a game situation like that so the adrenaline kind of got the best of me,” Tomlin said. “I felt like I could’ve kept going but it was the first start in 16 or 17 days so I think that was pretty smart (to pull me).”

Eric Hosmer got Kansas City on the board in the second inning with a 406 foot two-run blast to center off of Tomlin to give the Royals a 2-0 lead which was quickly erased.

Royals starter Nate Adcock didn’t last long after that.

The Indians sent him to the showers with one out in the third inning by scoring five times and sending 10 men to the plate.

Fresh up from Columbus, Lonnie Chisenhall started the rally by drilling a line drive solo homer to right field to lead off the third and cut the Royals lead in half at 2-1.

“What a beautiful swing, huh,” manager Manny Acta said. “This kid has a beautiful swing. That was nice to get us on the board right away.”

Six of the next seven hitters reached after Chisenhall’s homer.

Kipnis drove in a pair with a single to center to give the Indians their first lead at 3-2.

Lopez hit a Baltimore chop off of the plate for an infield single scoring Brantley, who walked, to make it 4-2. On the play, Kipnis got caught between second and third and appeared to be tagged out by third baseman Mike Moustakas on replays. He was ruled safe advancing to third and Moustakas was charged with an error.

Casey Kotchman drove home the fifth run of the inning with a single.

The Royals got back in the game by scoring twice in the fifth.

Brayan Pena homered to center before Jarrod Dyson tripled into the right field corner. Kipnis airmailed the throw into the stands allowing Dyson to score which cut the Indians’ lead to 5-4.

Cleveland wasted no time countering in the bottom of the inning. Kipnis reached on a bunt single, stole second on a pitch out and scored on another Lopez RBI single to extend the lead to 6-4.

“You’ve got to give it to these guys,” Acta said. “They find a way. I was glad we cut off that streak. Guys like Kipnis do a pretty good job of putting things behind them. They just say, ‘Let’s go get ‘em.’”

Alcides Escobar brought home the Royals fifth run with an RBI single in the top of the seventh to make it a 6-5 game but that’s as close as Kansas City got.

The Indians once again rallied in the bottom of the inning.

After a lead off single from Diaz, Jose Mijares relieved Louis Mendoza. Mijares’ two base throwing error into the stands allowed Diaz to go to 3rd with no outs. He was brought home on Michael Brantley’s RBI single making it a 7-5 game.

Brantley scored when Lopez grounded into a fielders choice. Second baseman Irving Falu kicked it for another error by the Royals.

Chris Perez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his 17th consecutive save.

“With all that crap I’ve been talking I’ve got to back it up,” Perez said.

He’s not blown a save since opening day and has helped nail down each of the last four victories.

The series continues Tuesday evening.

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