Considering how dominant right-hander Michael Lorenzen has been in his past three starts against the Guardians, the Kansas City Royals appear to be in prime position to grab a share of the American League Central lead as they head into Tuesday’s game against host Cleveland.
Lorenzen (7-6, 3.47 ERA), Tuesday’s scheduled starter for Kansas City, is 2-2 with a 1.97 ERA in 11 career appearances (three starts) against the Guardians, but he has taken things to a whole new level against Cleveland since 2022.
Over the past three years, Lorenzen has made three starts against the Guardians, going 1-1 while allowing just one run on 10 hits in 20 innings — good for an ERA of 0.45.
The Royals hope Lorenzen can continue baffling Cleveland as they try to pull even with the Guardians atop the AL Central.
Kansas City swept a doubleheader from Cleveland on Monday, with Bobby Witt Jr. clubbing a go-ahead solo shot in the eighth inning in Game 1, a 4-3 Royals victory, before Salvador Perez hit two homers, including a grand slam, en route to a 9-4 win in Game 2.
“We like to compete,” Perez, who is 7-for-11 (.636) in his past three games, told Bally Sports Kansas City. “We (had) to come into Cleveland and win the first two games. … We’re just going to try to win every game.”
After play was completed on June 25, the Guardians had a nine-game lead over the second-place Minnesota Twins in the AL Central. Kansas City was 10 games back at the time.
Since then, Cleveland has gone 24-31, and now the Royals are just one game behind it. Still, Guardians first-year manager Stephen Vogt believes there’s no reason to panic, even in the wake of Monday’s disappointing twin bill.
“They’re pros,” Vogt said of his players. “They know (Monday) was a rough day. Every time we have a tough day, they come back ready to win. This group’s not going to get discouraged. It’s not in their DNA. They all know where we’re at.”
Vogt and the Guardians will turn to right-hander Gavin Williams (2-6, 5.13) on Tuesday for the third game of a four-game set.
Williams has taken two straight losses, with the most recent one coming against the New York Yankees on Thursday. He lasted just 4 1/3 innings in that outing, yielding three runs on four hits.
However, Williams has been strong against the Royals in his career, going 1-0 with 1.62 ERA in three starts. He has yet to face them this season, though.
The Royals have won six of their eight games against Cleveland in 2024. Following the conclusion of this series on Wednesday, the teams will meet for a three-game set that begins next Monday.
“Just do the small things in the game and try to score more runs than them,” Kansas City infielder Maikel Garcia said. “We’ve faced those guys (the Guardians) a lot of times and we know what they’ve got.”
–Field Level Media