Royals left-hander Danny Duffy wasn’t satisfied with his four-seam fastball in his previous start. That pitch came back with a vengeance against the Indians on Wednesday.

Duffy tossed 5 2/3 innings of scoreless ball, mostly geared by a dominating four-seam fastball. The Royals won, 3-0.

Duffy threw 46 four-seam fastballs, and he got 12 swings and misses or called strikes. He gave up four hits -- three singles and a double -- and walked four, but he also struck out four.

• Box score

Duffy’s biggest moment came in the bottom of the fifth, when he faced the dangerous Franciso Lindor with the bases loaded. Duffy got Lindor to pop out to short center on a 1-0 fastball.

“Not an easy task,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “From the very first pitch, you could see how bad Danny wanted to do his job tonight.”

Added Duffy, “For the most part, when I had to make a pitch, it was there. [The fastball] got me out of a couple of jams.

“I was just trying to mix it up [on Lindor]. We ran something in on his hands. When we had to make a pitch, we did.”

Meanwhile, Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, who had been mired in a slump, came up big offensively.

Mondesi now has a six-game hitting streak, and he drove in a huge run down in the count, 1-2, in the sixth. With runners on first and third and none out, Mondesi lined a single to right field, giving the Royals a 1-0 advantage.

“His approach looks so much better,” Matheny said. “His timing looks right, body looks right.”

The Royals added to their lead with two runs in the ninth. Alex Gordon singled with one out and scored when Edward Olivares, acquired in the Trevor Rosenthal trade with San Diego, lined one to right field that took a crazy hop past right fielder Tyler Naquin and went for an RBI triple.

Nicky Lopez then singled in Olivares.

“I just wanted to put a good swing on the ball, and every run is important,” Lopez said. “Just shoot that six-hole.

“We’re never out of the fight. We’ve been grinding. To get some wins against a team like that is encouraging.”

The Royals’ bullpen was strong again, tossing 3 1/3 innings.

Jesse Hahn continues to emerge as a significant part of the relief corps, throwing 1 1/3 frames and yielding just one hit. Josh Staumont bounced back from a shaky outing on Sunday (three runs in one-third of an inning) with a perfect eighth.

Matheny said of Hahn, “That was really good stuff from Jesse. He’s becoming a legitimate piece to add to the back of the bullpen. That’s stuff, with him and Josh, the league isn’t wanting to face.”

And Greg Holland struck out one and allowed one hit in the ninth for his third save.

Up next
Right-hander Brady Singer (1-4, 5.58 ERA) takes the mound for the Royals as they finish a four-game set in Cleveland on Thursday at 5:10 p.m. CT, live on MLB.TV. Right-hander Aaron Civale (3-4, 3.63 ERA) will pitch for Cleveland. Singer, who will make his ninth start, last pitched Friday against the White Sox and allowed a career-high five runs on 10 hits -- all singles -- over 5 2/3 innings.