CLEVELAND – Casey Blake homered on David Riske’s first pitch in the ninth inning Friday night to rally Cleveland to a 5-4 win over the Kansas City Royals, moving the Indians closer to an AL Central title.

Blake hadn’t homered in 144 at-bats since Aug. 1 when he stepped to the plate against Riske, one of his former Indians teammates. He wasted no time, pulling a ball over the wall in left field to help Cleveland lower its magic number for clinching the division to 10.

After rounding the bases, Blake was greeted at home plate by his teammates, who first pounded him on the head and then delivered another whipped-cream pie – an early season fad that has quickly become a Cleveland tradition.

The Indians, who haven’t made the playoffs since 2001, improved to 16-4 since Aug. 25.

Riske (1-4) also gave up Victor Martinez’s leadoff homer in the eighth that tied it 4-4.

Joe Borowski (4-5) pitched a scoreless ninth for Cleveland, which entered the series with a 51/2-game lead over second-place Detroit. The Tigers will visit Jacobs Field for three games starting Monday.

Royals rookie Brian Bannister held the Indians to a pair of first-inning singles in six innings and outperformed Cleveland’s C.C. Sabathia, who struck out a career-high 13 but couldn’t get the big one in the fifth when the Royals rallied for four runs with two outs to take a 4-1 lead.

Bannister was in line for his fifth win in six starts before Kansas City’s bullpen let the Indians back in it.

Trailing 4-1 after doing next to nothing against Bannister, the Indians closed within a run in the seventh on Franklin Gutierrez’s two-run homer off reliever Joel Peralta.

Kenny Lofton singled with one out and Gutierrez drove a 1-0 pitch over the wall in left for his 12th homer. Royals manager Buddy Bell brought in left-hander John Bale, who walked two before striking out Travis Hafner to preserve Kansas City’s lead.

But the Royals’ advantage vanished quickly in the eighth on Martinez’s 22nd homer. Like Blake, he connected on Riske’s first pitch, sending a towering shot toward right that barely cleared outfielder Mark Teahen’s glove and the wall.

Sabathia had gone 10 consecutive starts without allowing more than two earned runs, the longest such stretch for an Indians pitcher since Gaylord Perry in 1974.

Aside from two walks, Sabathia overpowered the Royals the first time through their lineup. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth, when Billy Butler dropped a soft, two-out single into left-center.

But the Royals hit Sabathia hard in the fifth, scoring four runs – all with two outs – to open a 4-1 lead.

Notes: In Sabathia, Fausto Carmona (16-8) and Paul Byrd (15-6), the Indians are the majors’ only team with three-15 game winners. They’re the first AL team with three 15-game winners since the 2001 New York Yankees (Mussina, Clemens, Pettitte). … Sabathia has 198 strikeouts, the most by an Indians left-hander since Sam McDowell’s 304 in 1970. … Indians GM Mark Shapiro had nothing but praise for Twins GM Terry Ryan, who announced his resignation after 13 seasons with Minnesota. “My respect for him may be greater than for any other exec in the game,” Shapiro said. “Character, integrity, work ethic, sincerity, the things that matter to me, he personifies a lot of those things. And he succeeded without compromising any of those standards or values.”

AP-ES-09-14-07 2233EDT