(My Sportsbook) - The first-place Kansas City Royals will close out a six- game road trip this afternoon with the finale of a three-game series against the last-place Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field.

Kansas City is tied atop the American League Central with Chicago and Detroit, while the Indians sit last in the standings. The Royals have won six of their last nine games and improved to 3-2 on the trek thanks to starting pitcher Brian Bannister, who threw six scoreless innings to lead the team to a 2-0 triumph over the Tribe.

Bannister, making his first start of 2009, allowed four hits and was taking the roster spot of injured reliever Doug Waechter, who is out with an elbow problem. Jamey Wright threw two scoreless innings of relief and Joakim Soria closed the door in the ninth for his fifth save of the season.

Willie Bloomquist drove in a run for the Royals and both Coco Crisp and Alberto Callaspo finished with two hits in a winning effort.

Kansas City will return home to Kauffman Stadium for seven games after Thursdays contest in Cleveland.

Gil Meche gets the call for the Royals today and is 1-0 with a 2.25 earned run average over three starts. Meche last pitched Friday at Texas and earned his first win of the season with six shutout innings of six-hit ball. He also struck out six batters for the third straight time after back-to-back no- decisions to start the year.

The right-hander has faced the Tribe 18 times in his career and has gone 4-8 with a 5.20 earned run average.

Cleveland has alternated wins and losses over its last six games and fell to 1-1 on a nine-game homestand versus Kansas City, Minnesota and Boston with Wednesday's setback. Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee suffered the tough loss last night and lasted eight innings, giving up two runs and nine hits.

Lee is now 1-3 on the season after going 22-3 in 31 starts a year ago to win the prestigious pitching honor. Victor Martinez went 2-for-4 to register his ninth multi-hit game of the season in defeat.

Indians pitcher Anthony Reyes will take the ball Thursday and is 1-0 with a 5.73 ERA in two starts this season. Reyes is coming off a rough outing in which he yielded three runs and five hits over five innings of a 6-5 loss to the New York Yankees on Friday. Luckily, he did not factor in the decision.

The straight-brimmed right-hander, who won his 2009 debut versus Toronto with six decent innings, has enjoyed success throughout his career versus Kansas City. In three career starts against the Royals, Reyes is 2-0 with a 1.32 ERA.

Kansas City took two of three games from Cleveland last week at Kauffman Stadium and has won six of the last eight matchups between the teams.