Blue Jays take over 1st place in AL after Royals' loss to Indians

Kris Medlen lost the rematch.

Medlen beat Cleveland Indians earlier this month, throwing 6 1/3 scoreless innings. The Indians peppered him in the rematch Saturday night, knocking the Kansas City Royals right-hander out in the fourth inning in a 9-5 victory.

"Just a frustrating night," Medlen said. "I have no answers for how I did. I just felt overall terrible within my mechanics and was kind of just battling myself, adjusting too much one time and not adjusting enough. But I didn't give us a chance to win.

"Just a frustrating, frustrating outing, especially given the fact that we scored some runs tonight and all that, so just frustrating."

The Royals, who wrapped up the American League Central title with a victory Thursday, fell to 9-15 in September.

They no longer control their own destiny for home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs. With the loss and the Toronto's victory over Tampa Bay, the Blue Jays and Royals share the AL's best record at 89-65. However, Toronto holds the tiebreaker by beating Kansas City in the season series.

"We'll find out," Royals manager Ned Yost said when asked how his team will respond with eight games remaining, seven on the road. "We'll see. I've got a lot of confidence in this group. But again, we just worry about ourselves. We've got to go out and win baseball games. That'll take care of everything."

Medlen (5-2) was pulled after 3 2/3 innings, yielding six runs on nine hits, including six for extra bases, a walk and a wild pitch.

"I just could not get comfortable on the mound," Medlen said. "It was a big contrast from how I felt leaving the pen. I felt great leaving the pen, and just once I got out there the game speed and whatever else, I don't know.

"When you're letting go of pitches and thinking you're letting go of some good ones and they're up and they're flat, the hitters tell you a lot about how your stuff is that night. Up and flat is how it felt tonight."