CLEVELAND — Cliff Lee has been picking up his hitters all season. It was only fair that they returned the favor.
With Lee offering up a less-than-dominant start for one of the few times this season Friday night, the Indians’ offense still got their Cy Young front-runner another win — his 22nd — slugging their way past the Royals, 12-5.
Everyone in the Cleveland lineup recorded either a hit or an RBI, with five players — Grady Sizemore, Jamey Carroll, Shin-Soo Choo, Kelly Shoppach and Franklin Gutierrez — enjoying multihit games.
“We did a lot of good things out there tonight,” said manager Eric Wedge, whose team won for the seventh time in 11 games, improving to 10-5 against Kansas City, the Central Division’s worst team. “It was a good all-around ballgame for us.”
The Indians also mixed in some defense, erasing two runs on plays at the plate, but as he has been for pretty much the entire season, Lee was the main attraction.
The left-hander began the game in usual fashion, allowing just a run through the first five innings, while his offense built a substantial lead.
With the Royals taking a proactive approach against Lee, he needed just 84 pitches to get through eight innings, taking the mound in the ninth in search of his fifth complete game.
“I could tell pretty early they were being aggressive and swinging early in the count,” Lee said. “I just tried to keep throwing strikes and getting ahead. That worked fine up until the ninth.”
KC foiled the complete-game bid, scoring three times in the ninth inning to tarnish Lee’s line, which read five runs (four earned) on 11 hits through 8 1/3 innings.
“It was unfortunate the way it turned out,” said Shoppach, who hit one of the Indians’ three home runs on the night, his 20th of the season. “He threw too good to look back at the line score and see what it was.”
What it was, was another victory for Lee, who won his 11th straight decision to improve to a big league best 22-2 with a 2.36 ERA in 29 starts. The winning streak is the longest in the majors this year and the most consecutive wins in the big league’s since Chris Carpenter won 13 straight for St. Louis in 2005.
Lee is the first Indians pitcher to win 11 or more straight games since Gaylord Perry, Cleveland’s last 20-game winner in 1974.
Lee’s 22 wins are the most in the majors since Dontrelle Willis posted the same victory total in 2005. He is a mind-blowing 20 games over .500, something that hasn’t been done seen since Bob Welch went 27-6 for Oakland in 1990.
“I know there have been some tremendous pitching seasons by starting pitchers,” Wedge said. “But this is without a doubt nothing like I’ve ever seen.”
And Lee has the opportunity to make it even better. He is in line to make three more starts before the regular season is complete, needing just a win to equal the most ever by a Cleveland lefty — Vean Gregg (23-7 in 1911). If he wins them all, Lee will have posted the highest win total by an Indians pitcher since Hall of Famer Bob Feller, perceived as the greatest pitcher in Cleveland history, won 26 games in 1946.
“It’s not over yet,” said Lee, who should also be on the short list of Comeback Player of the Year candidates after going 5-8 with a 6.29 ERA and losing his job in the rotation last season. “So far it’s gone pretty good. I’m not going to start patting myself on the back yet. I expect myself to give the team a chance to win every time. What I’ve done in the past doesn’t matter.
“That’s the mentality I’ve had the whole time. I don’t want to change that, ever.”
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. 

TODAY’s games

WHO: Cleveland vs. Kansas City
TIME: 1:05 and 7:05 p.m.
WHERE: Progressive Field
PITCHERS:
Game 1: Carmona (8-6, 4.88 ERA) vs. Greinke (10-10, 3.70)
Game 2: Bullington (first start) vs. Tejeda (1-2, 4.19)
TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio (both); WEOL 930-AM (Game 1), WTAM 1100-AM (both)

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