CLEVELAND -- The first-place Kansas City Royals have hit a speed bump on their way to the AL Central Division title, but they have got plenty of wiggle room over the rest of the division. The Cleveland Indians, desperately seeking a wild-card spot, have no wiggle room at all.

Monday night at Progressive Field, Carlos Carrasco struck out nine in six innings, and Lonnie Chisenhall had three hits and three RBIs to lead the Indians to an 8-3 win over the Royals.

The right-handed Carrasco (13-10) gave up one run on five hits.

"He had one of the better breaking balls he's had all year, and that's big against a good fastball-hitting team like they are," said Cleveland manager Terry Francona.

Royals right-hander Edinson Volquez (13-8) gave up four runs in five innings and took the loss, Kansas City's 10th in its past 14 games. However, Kansas City went into the game with a 10-game lead over second-place Minnesota, so Royals manager Ned Yost isn't overly concerned about his team's recent struggles.

"That's not a horribly long time, but it is for this team this year," he said. "It's like getting the flu. You let it run its course, and then you'll be fine."

The teams began the game by exchanging leadoff home runs. Royals left fielder Alex Gordon hit the first pitch of the game from Carrasco into the seats in right field for his 12th home run.

In the bottom of the first inning, Indians designated hitter Jason Kipnis hit a 1-2 pitch from Volquez over the wall in center field for his 12thhome run.

"Giving up that home run to their first hitter just made me want to be more aggressive," said Carrasco.

"Carrasco is always tough. He has a really good slider, and a good fastball," said Yost. "It looked like we were going to get off to a good start, but after the (Gordon) home run, Carrasco got settled in. You hope he doesn't, that he'll be up in the zone and hittable."

Carrasco wasn't.

Leading 4-1, Cleveland went to its bullpen in the seventh inning, and the Royals scored two runs on two infield RBI singles by Gordon and second baseman Ben Zobrist off right-hander Bryan Shaw, cutting the lead to 4-3.

The Indians responded with three runs in the bottom of the seventh off right-hander Kelvin Herrera. With one out, left fielder Michael Brantley hit his major-league-leading 44th double into the gap in left-center field. First baseman Carlos Santana drew a walk.

Chisenhall, Cleveland's right fielder, grounded a single into right field to score Brantley to extend the margin to 5-3.

"Chisenhall hit a really good pitch. The problem was walking two guys in front of him," said Yost.

Catcher Yan Gomes then drove a double into the gap in right-center field, scoring Santana and Chisenhall.

"That was really a nice piece of hitting by Yan. He got on top of a good fastball," said Francona.

Cleveland made it 8-3 on an RBI triple by shortstop Francisco Lindor in the eighth inning.

"They've got the best bullpen in baseball, so it was nice to put up some runs late and stretch it out," Chisenhall said.

In the bottom of the third inning, Cleveland broke a 1-1 tie on an RBI double off the right-field wall by Chisenhall. The Indians added on with one out in the fourth inning, when third baseman Giovanny Urshela hit a 1-1 pitch from Volquez into the left-field bleachers for his sixth home run, a solo shot.

The Indians scored again off Volquez in the fifth inning, when they used a walk and two singles to load the bases with no outs. However, they could only squeeze one run out of that rally, which came on a sacrifice fly by Chisenhall.

NOTES: Indians 2B Jason Kipnis, who was leading the American League in hitting for much of the first half of the season, was hitting .130 in September (6-for-46) and .188 since Aug. 1 (19-for-101) after going 1-for-5 Monday. Manager Terry Francona said Kipnis has been bothered recently by a stiff neck. ... Cleveland has drawn a major-league-high 18 walks with the bases loaded, the most by an Indians team in 31 years. ... Through the weekend, the Royals led the majors with a team batting average of .278 with two outs. The major league average was .244. ... In his first four starts after being traded to the Royals, RHP Johnny Cueto was 2-1 with 1.80 ERA. In his past five starts, he is 0-5 with a 9.57 ERA.