CLEVELAND -- This was one dubious record that Royals third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert certainly didn’t want.

Cuthbert snapped an 0-for-40 drought with a double high off the wall in the sixth inning off right-hander Mike Clevinger in the Royals’ 4-2 loss to the Indians on Saturday night at Progressive Field.

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"Wow. It's a lot of relief for me,” Cuthbert said. “I don't know what really happened. I've never been in that situation, so many at-bats without getting a base hit. At the beginning, I thought that's OK, I don't get a base hit, it’s OK. [But] after I got like 20 or 30 at-bats into it, it started getting into my head. Thank God it happened today."

The Royals’ franchise hitless streak record is an 0-for-44 skid by Joe Keough, a mark set 50 years ago in the team’s first season of existence.

"I didn't know the record,” Cuthbert said. “I imagine I was close."

Cuthbert’s last hit had come on Aug. 8 off Tigers lefty Matthew Boyd, a home run at Comerica Park.

The streak became a worry to all those close to Cuthbert, including his family back home in Nicaragua.

“My family supported me,” he said. “All the time, they texted me and would say, ‘You'll get over it. Just keep working hard and never give up.’ They kept supporting me. My teammates, everyone was excited, too, when I got a base hit."

Cuthbert also scored the Royals’ first run. He walked in the fourth and scored on Meibrys Viloria's double off the left-field wall.

Before the 0-for-40, Cuthbert had been one of the Royals’ hottest hitters, batting .308 in his previous 26 games with five doubles and four home runs. So now, back to the old Cheslor Cuthbert?

"To tell you the truth, I felt like I had a big [weight] on my back,” he said. “When I got a base hit, I felt like everything just went away. I just feel like a new person now."

Right-hander Glenn Sparkman started, but he lasted just 4 1/3 innings. He threw 100 pitches in that time and gave up four runs, all in the third inning. A three-run homer by Franmil Reyes was the big blow.

But before that, the game changed on what actually was a great pitch by Sparkman -- a hard fastball on the hands of Mike Freeman, shattering his bat in half. But the ball squirted between Sparkman and Cuthbert at third for a hit, scoring a runner from third with two out to put the Indians ahead, 1-0.

“Shattered his bat,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Hit it in the perfect spot. The only chance we had is if Sparkman had jumped off the mound and made a miraculous play.”

Sparkman could only shake his head. And after a walk, he left a slider over the plate to Reyes.

“It was a tough one,” Sparkman said. “A little dribbler in no-man’s land. I made the pitch I wanted to in the right spot. It’s frustrating, but that’s the game of baseball. Things don’t always go your way.”