CLEVELAND (AP) Jason Kipnis spun as he approached home plate and deftly avoided being soaked with ice water by teammate Francisco Lindor.
Right now, Kipnis and the Indians are making all the right moves.
Kipnis homered leading off the 10th inning as Cleveland continued its impressive June with a 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night in a game delayed 2 hours, 23 minutes by rain.
Clevelands second baseman connected on a 1-0 pitch from Wily Peralta (2-4), driving it into the right-field seats for his sixth homer and first walk-off since September.
As the ball sailed into the nearly empty stands, Kipnis dropped his bat, circled the bases and pivoted near the plate to duck Lindors attempt at a face-first Gatorade bath.
Its an awesome feeling. It never gets old, Kipnis said. Getting a hit never gets old. Hitting a home run never gets old. To do it all as a walk-off, its a thrill, its a rush, to look back at all your teammates running out to home plate. It really is one of the better rushes in the game.
The Indians have won four straight, nine of 11, 14 of 19 and are an AL-best 15-6 this month.
Kipnis has been a big part of Clevelands early-summer surge. Hes batting .471 with four homers and 14 RBIs in his past nine games, and the jump in his stats came after Kipnis noticed something about the positioning of his hands while watching video.
Hes figured things out, and so have the Indians, who are a season-high eight games over .500.
Brad Hand (4-2) worked a perfect 10th as Indians manager Terry Francona was forced to use six pitchers because of the weather.
Indians rookie slugger Bobby Bradley, who delivered an RBI double in his first major league at-bat after being recalled from Triple-A Columbus on Sunday, put the Indians up in the sixth with a run-scoring double.
Whit Merrifield homered for the Royals, who sit at the bottom of the AL Central.
With the score tied 1-1 in sixth, José Ramírez walked with two outs before Bradley hit a liner that split center fielder Billy Hamilton and right fielder Merrifield, who cut the ball off with a soggy, sliding stop near the warning track.
But Kansas Citys relay was not in time to get Ramírez, and Bradley, who was leading the International League in homers, celebrated at second by raising his arms and motioning toward his teammates in the dugout.
