Kansas City, Mo. ? Jake Westbrook opened the game with a four-pitch walk and worked around traffic for most of his six innings. He still didn’t have full confidence in his sinker, dropping his arm angle to offset his insecurity.

What Westbrook did get was a win, his first since reconstructive right-elbow surgery. No matter how he got there, that sure feels good.

Russell Branyan homered twice in support of Westbrook’s first win in two years, lifting the Cleveland Indians to an 8-2 victory over the backpedaling Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night.

“It’s nice to get that first win and pitch well doing it,” said Westbrook, who had Tommy John surgery in June 2008. “It wasn’t real pretty, but I put up some zeros and only gave up that one run. I had baserunners all night, but made pitches when I had to.”

Westbrook (1-2) used his sinker and an occasional drop-down delivery to induce 13 groundouts and held the Royals to five hits for his first win since April 8, 2008.

Branyan provided the power, hitting a two-run homer off Brian Bannister (1-3) in the second and a solo shot off Joakim Soria in the ninth.