For the past eight games, most of manager Eric Wedge's players have been pulling on the same end of the rope. When they were 1-7 on April 14, they couldn't find a rope, much less the right end to pull on.

Thursday, in Cleveland's frozen April sunshine, the Indians won their first series of the season when Grady Sizemore hit an out-of-nowhere three-run homer in the eighth inning to beat Kansas City, 5-2, at Progressive Field.

The Indians had little if any business winning this game. But it's often how befuddled teams right themselves.

On Wednesday night they were shut out, 2-0, by Brian Bannister and the Royals bullpen. Something similar was happening Thursday as Gil Meche, throwing all of his pitches for strikes, entered the eighth with a 2-1 lead that felt like 10-1.

quot;Meche had everything going,quot; Wedge said. quot;When he's like that, he's tough to hit.quot;

Ryan Garko started the eighth inning with a double. It was the Indians' third hit of the game and ended a stretch of 16 straight outs by Meche.

Tony Graffanino, Wedge's only speed option because he's carrying 13 pitchers on the roster, pinch ran for Garko. Ben Francisco followed with a bunt near the third-base line. The bunt was good enough to get Graffanino to third.

Then another realm of possibilities presented themselves as Meche threw the ball past first.

Graffanino, following the ball instead of looking at third-base coach Joel Skinner's stop sign, bolted for home. Second baseman Alberto Callaspo, backing up the play, was the recipient of a good bounce and threw out Graffanino at the plate.

quot;Graf was overly aggressive in that situation,quot; Wedge said. quot;But we kept pushing. They had us shut down, but we took it all the way to the end.quot;

Pinch-hitter Travis Hafner followed with a single into right field past the shift to get Francisco to third. Asdrubal Cabrera then reached on Callaspo's error to score Francisco for a 2-2 tie.

Out went Meche (1-1, 2.63), in came lefty Ron Mahay and up stepped Sizemore. In Wednesday's loss, Sizemore said the offense had to do a better job. He was upset the hitters had wasted eight good innings by starter Cliff Lee.

Now he had a chance to let his bat do the talking.

quot;I knew it was a big situation for the team and me,quot; Sizemore said. quot;They threw well again today and we were struggling at the plate to put good at-bats together. I got up there with an opportunity to open the game up.quot;

Sizemore, on Mahay's 0-1 pitch, turned himself into a 200-pound electric can-opener. He drove the pitch into the right-field seats for a 5-2 lead with his sixth homer in 16 games.

quot;I wasn't trying to hit a homer, I was trying to get a base hit and score a run,quot; Sizemore said. quot;It worked out.quot;

It was Sizemore's second homer against a lefty this year.

quot;It was a good effort by everybody that inning,quot; said the Tribe's center fielder. quot;The guys hitting ahead of me did a good job getting Meche out of there.quot;

Closer Kerry Wood, throwing 95 to 97 mph, relieved Jensen Lewis (2-2) in the ninth and retired the Royals in order for his third save. He struck out two to give him 11 K's in 5 1/3 innings.

quot;I was ready,quot; Wood said. quot;Anybody in our lineup can go deep, so if you're two or three down in the eighth, you've got to be ready.quot;

The Indians (6-10) have won five of their last eight games. They made three errors Thursday, but starter Anthony Reyes pitched around two of them in six good innings. Francisco dropped Mike Jacobs' fly ball in left to load the bases with no one out in the third. But Reyes retired the next three batters, striking out the last two.

quot;What Reyes doesn't do is give in,quot; Wedge said. quot;He makes big pitches at points in a game when you need to make big pitches.quot;

Starting pitching, bullpen and offense - three ingredients necessary for a team to win consistently - were evident in various stages Thursday for the Tribe.

quot;We're starting to play more consistent Baseball,quot; Wedge said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

phoynes@plaind.com, 216-999-5158