Kyle Isbel delivered a two-out, tiebreaking single in the eighth, and five Kansas City relievers held the Cleveland Guardians without a hit over 5 1/3 innings, during the Royals’ 4-3 road win Thursday.
The Royals broke a 3-3 tie with two outs in the eighth as Adam Frazier doubled against Hunter Gaddis (3-2). Isbel followed with a single to right field for his second RBI, which ended a 26-inning scoreless streak from Cleveland’s bullpen.
Relievers Will Smith, Angel Zerpa, Sam Long (1-1), John Schreiber and James McArthur (12th save) stymied the AL Central-leading Guardians to split this abbreviated two-game series. Vinny Pasquantino and Hunter Renfroe each had two hits with an RBI as the Royals won for the third time in 10 games.
Jose Ramirez hit his 17th homer for Cleveland, which went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and couldn’t take advantage of the Royals stranding 11 men.
Kansas City took advantage of some early poor defense from Cleveland. Guardians second baseman Andres Gimenez couldn’t handle Maikel Garcia’s liner to open the game. Garcia then went to third via first baseman Josh Naylor’s error on starter Tanner Bibee’s pickoff attempt and scored when Pasquantino doubled to right.
Cleveland loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the first but managed just one run on Naylor’s RBI groundout. Ramirez then put the Guardians ahead 2-1 in the third by taking a Brady Singer pitch well into the right-field seats.
In the fourth, Ramirez added an RBI infield hit following consecutive two-out singles from Steven Kwan and Gimenez to make it 3-1.
Ramirez’s single ended the day for Singer, who was charged with two earned runs while allowing nine hits in 3 2/3 innings.
However, the Royals ended Bibee’s day in the sixth. After he allowed a single to Freddy Fermin and walked MJ Melendez, reliever Nick Sandlin yielded an RBI double to Renfroe. Melendez then scored the tying run via Isbel’s fielder’s choice grounder on a play where video review overturned an initial out call.
Two of the three runs Bibee allowed were earned while giving up six hits and one walk while striking out seven in five-plus innings.
–Field Level Media