The Cleveland Guardians attacked Seth Lugo from the start, and it paid off quickly. Steven Kwan led off the game with a sharp single to center followed by a hard-hit double down the rightfield line by Jose Ramirez two batters later. Next up, cleanup hitter Kyle Manzardo pounded a double of his own to drive in two before scoring when Daniel Schneemann singled him home.
Five batters in, it was 3-0 Cleveland with just one out.
Seth Lugo labored through four innings in which he tossed 102 pitches. He surrendered seven hits and walked four while striking out five. He took the loss.
To give the Royals a modicum of credit, they never stopped fighting. Multiple times today the Royals sent up to the plate a batter who represented the tying run. Ultimately, that never came to fruition, and the closest the Royals came to the Guardians was a three-run deficit.
Kansas City batters, led by Bobby Witt Jr., collected a dozen hits and walked five times versus only seven strikeouts, though some of those whiffs were incredibly untimely. Seven of the Royals’ starting nine collected at least one base hit with Maikel Garcia joining Bob with multiple hits.
Bobby Witt Jr. went 4-for-4 with a walk and a home run, his fourth of this season. He launched a solo shot in the bottom of the seventh after the Guardians took their largest lead of the game, 8-2. When Vinnie Pasquantino followed with a homer of his own, suddenly the Royals were back within a slam with nine outs to spare.
Pasquantino came up again the next inning with two on and a chance to tie it. Instead, he struck out. That pretty much put the game away as the Royals went quietly in the ninth when Cleveland’s closer, Cade Smith, struck out Salvy and Jensen before getting Cags to weakly fly out to end the suffering.
The name of the game today was missed opportunities. In the bottom of the first, the Royals loaded the bases against Cleveland starter Slade Cecconi. But on the first pitch of his at-bat following a walk by Jensen, Caglianone grounded out to first.
In the fifth, the Royals finally got on the board when Garcia singled home Massey, but then Garcia gaffed on the basepaths when the next batter, Witt, hit one hard to the second baseman, rookie Travis Bazzana, who bobbled it. It didn’t get nearly far enough away from Bazzana for Garcia to try to take third, but try to take third he did, and the young Aussie nailed him, deflating a could-be rally.
The Royals threatened again the very next inning. Nick Loftin lined out to center with the bases loaded, but Jensen scored, making it a 5-2 game. Lane Thomas then walked to re-load the bases for Garcia. Garcia got ahead in the count, 2-0, but then swung at a pitch that was clearly outside the zone. The at-bat turned after that, and Garcia meekly flew out to right.
Bobby Witt Jr. led off the next inning with his homer.
Salvador Perez continues to struggle. He went 0-for-5 with a strikeout. He’s back under The Mendoza Line with an equally ugly .573 OPS. I would say he shouldn’t stay in the cleanup spot, but if not him, then who? Jensen and Cags aren’t exactly lighting it up, and as well as Isaac Collins is hitting, he’s not meant for that role.
Lest Lugo and the batters take all the blame, 3/4 of the relievers also struggled, though Nick Mears got out of it unscathed. Alex Lange and Eric Cerantola can’t say the same. The former allowed one run to score in his only inning of work while the latter allowed the biggest hit of the game, a three-run homer off the bat of Bo Naylor that gave Cleveland its 8-2 lead in the seventh. And wouldn’t you know it, the Guardians won by three.
In the end, Royals pitchers struck out 11 but gave up just as many hits while handing out eight free passes.
With the result, the Royals and Guardians split the four-game series.
Next up for the Royals: three more at home hosting the Detroit Tigers.
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