CLEVELAND -- Things were happening fast on Sunday afternoon. The Royals were on their second pitcher by the second inning, the Tribe's lineup had already gifted fans beyond Progressive Field's left-field wall with three souvenirs and a dozen runs piled up in mere minutes.
The coup de gras was a grand slam of the bat of Yan Gomes, whose blast to the base of the Pierre's Ice Cream stand at the back of the Home Run Porch sent the already-buzzing crowd into a frenzy. That shot capped off a nine-run second and pushed Cleveland to a 12-run lead that would hold for the duration as it defeated Kansas City, 12-0. It even had Gomes' head spinning when the smoke from the fireworks cleared.
"I was like, 'Man, that all happened in one inning?'" Gomes said with a laugh.
• Grand slams mean 40% off pizza
The rout was a gut-punch of a defeat dealt to the Royals, who fell to nine games back of the American League Central-leading Tribe after the Indians' pitchers turned in 27 consecutive blank frames over the past 72 hours.
The three-game brooming was punctuated by the Tribe's dozen runs and a furious second inning that featured a dozen batters.
The frame included 41 pitches, nine runs, eight hits, four singles, three homers, three mound visits, two walks, one double and one error. Royals lefty Eric Skoglund was tagged for seven runs, and he only recorded four outs. Reliever Onelki Garcia -- in his first Major League appearance since 2013 -- did his team a favor with 5 2/3 innings logged, but he was on the hook for five of the second-inning runs.

"Things like that don't happen very often," Gomes said. "That can sure kill a team's momentum. Every team, especially in this kind of situation, we're all trying to build momentum starting the ballgame, and we did with a three-run inning in the first. But then, I think when you put a nine-run inning in that second, you kind of take the air out of everyone."
Gomes -- wearing "Gomer" on his jersey for Players Weekend, due to the nickname used by manager Terry "Tito" Francona -- opened the second innocently enough with a single to left field.
Things escalated quickly from there.
Francisco Lindor followed with a two-run homer into the left-field seats, where a fan wearing a Lindor jersey caught the ball. Four batters later, when the Royals handed the ball to Garcia, Carlos Santana belted a three-run homer off the pole down the left-field line. Gomes capped off the outburst with his grand slam, which was the second of his career.
"Good for him," Francona said with a smile. "We kind of kept at them."

The nine runs marked the most in an inning for the Indians since Sept. 30, 2012, when Cleveland piled up 10 against -- ironically enough -- the Royals. The last time Cleveland belted three homers in one inning was on July 20 last season against, once again, the Royals. The eight hits were the most in an inning for the Tribe since also collecting eight on April 20, 2013, against Houston.
Kansas City had not allowed at least nine runs in an inning since June 24, 2016, also against the Astros.
"We just wanted to make sure that we were still driving it in there," Gomes said, "and really twisting it in there on them. We were not going to take anything off."