Kansas City, MO (My Sportsbook) - Zack Greinke threw five strong innings to help the Kansas City Royals take a 4-2 win over the Cleveland Indians in the opener of a three-game set.

Greinke (2-0) gave up six hits and two walks with nine strikeouts for the Royals, who snapped a two-game slide. Mike Jacobs hit a solo home run while Mark Teahen, Billy Butler and Alberto Callaspo each drove in a run.

Fausto Carmona (0-2) was saddled with the loss as he gave up four runs on five hits with four walks and three strikeouts in five innings of work for the Indians, who failed to follow up on their only win of the season, an 8-4 victory over Toronto on Sunday. Shin-Soo Choo drove in a run while Victor Martinez went 3-for-5 in the loss.

Cleveland threatened in the first when the team had men on first and third with one out, but Travis Hafner struck out and Jhonny Peralta grounded out to end the frame.

The Royals jumped on Carmona in the first inning. Coco Crisp led off with a walk, but Mike Aviles then flied out. David DeJesus followed with a walk and Teahen then punched a run-scoring single to center. Butler followed with a double to score DeJesus and, after Mike Jacobs flied out, Callaspo singled to bring home Teahen for a 3-0 lead.

The Tribe loaded the bases with one out in the third, but Greinke again worked out of trouble as Hafner again struck out and Peralta followed suit with a strike out to end the frame.

Jacobs led off the fourth with a shot over the wall in right-center for a 4-0 lead.

"Homers are things that you don't necessarily go up there and say 'I'm going to hit a home run' they just happen," said Jacobs. "Hopefully they'll keep going."

Ron Mahay started the ninth to shut things down for the Royals, but issued consecutive singles to start the frame and Joakim Soria took the mound.

Soria then gave up back-to-back singles to Grady Sizemore and Choo with Choo's single scoring Trevor Crowe. A wild pitch then plated Asdrubal Cabrera to make it a 4-2 game.

"We were able to work some tough at-bats," said Cleveland manager Eric Wedge. "We made them throw a lot of pitches, we just weren't able to take advantage of it."

From there, though, Soria got Martinez to strike out swinging, Hafner to ground out back to the mound and Peralta to look at strike three to end the game and pick up his fourth save of the season.

Game Notes

Cleveland stranded 12 men on base...The Indians have lost six of their seven games thus far this season...Cleveland won 10 of 18 games against the Royals last season...Greinke has 16 strikeouts over 11 scoreless innings in his two starts this season.