Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Guardians

· Major League Baseball

Kansas City Royals

75-59, 34-31 Away

Final
5 - 7

Cleveland Guardians

76-58, 41-24 Home

Guardians rally for 7-5 victory over Royals, reclaim sole possession of first place in AL Central

The Guardians trailed 5-2 entering the seventh and scored four times to take their first lead of the game. Bo Naylor homered off starter Michael Wacha, while Josh Naylor, Will Brennan and Noel had RBI singles against Lucas Erceg (2-4).

Andrés Giménez tacked on a sacrifice fly in the eighth as Cleveland avoided a four-game sweep in the series with its MLB-leading 37th comeback win. The Guardians had been alone atop the division for 154 days until Kansas City pulled into a tie Tuesday.

“We haven’t looked like ourselves for a while, but that inning, that was us,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “It was such a great response by our guys. Erceg has been very good, but Will came up with a big swing and Big Christmas (Noel) again comes through.”

Kansas City had its seven-game road winning streak snapped and is 23-14 since the All-Star break. The Royals, who have clinched the season tiebreaker over the Guardians, host Cleveland for three games next week.

Erceg was charged with one run allowed, his first in 12 appearances and 13 1/3 innings since joining Kansas City in a July 30 trade with Oakland.

“Tough way for us to go out, but we came in here and did what we needed to do,” said Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, who had a career-high four hits. “I think we have their respect and they have ours. It’s going to be a fun month.”

Eli Morgan (2-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the victory. Emmanuel Clase earned his AL-best 39th save — with his career-high 26th straight conversion — and matched Cody Allen’s franchise record with 149.

“The competitive nature Clase attacks the game with and the mentality he goes out with, it’s huge having him in the back end of a game,” Bo Naylor said. “The vibes today were electric, back to what we’ve known throughout this year. That was definitely a great step in the right direction.”

Bobby Witt Jr., Pasquantino and Michael Massey hit solo homers off Guardians ace Tanner Bibee, who gave up five runs in five innings. Witt went 2 for 5 and continues to lead baseball with a .346 batting average, 185 hits and 114 runs.

Wacha was denied his 100th career win, pitching six-plus innings and allowing five runs.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: SS Bobby Witt Jr. (right middle finger bruise) has started all 134 games in the second spot in the batting order. The AL MVP candidate was hit by a pitch from Pedro Avila in the seventh inning Tuesday.

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb (right fingernail tear) played catch at Progressive Field, one day after throwing three innings of live batting practice. The 36-year-old starter is eligible to be activated on Aug. 31.

Royals: RHP Brady Singer (9-9, 3.38 ERA) starts the opener of a four-game series at AL West-leading Houston on Thursday.

Guardians: RHP Ben Lively (11-8, 3.62 ERA) pitches the first game of a three-game home series against Pittsburgh on Friday.

How can I watch Kansas City Royals vs. Cleveland Guardians?

TV Channel: Royals at Guardians 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Guardians: 57.4%

Royals: 42.6%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Perez flied out to center.
	9th Inning	Pasquantino grounded out to first, Witt Jr. to second.
	9th Inning	Witt Jr. singled to right.
	9th Inning	Garcia struck out looking.
	9th Inning	Clase relieved Gaddis
	9th Inning	Hedges catching.

Statistics

KC		CLE
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	3
10	Ground Balls	7
10	Strikeouts	8
5	Runs Batted In	7
0	Sacrifice Hit	1
11	Hits	13
0	Stolen Bases	1
2	Walks	1
0	Catcher Interference	0
5	Runs	7
0	Ground Into Double Play	0
0	Sacrifice Flies	1
38	At Bats	35
3	Home Runs	1
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
17	Runners Left On Base	20
0	Triples	0
0	Game Winning RBIs	1
0	Intentional Walks	0
0	Doubles	2
18	Fly Balls	22
0	Caught Stealing	0
156	Pitches	144
0	Games Started	0
1	Pinch At Bats	0
1	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
20	Total Bases	18
40	Plate Appearances	41
486.0	Projected Home Runs	162.0
3	Extra Base Hits	3
6.5	Runs Created	8.0
.289	Batting Average	.371
1.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.526	Slugging Percentage	.514
.289	Secondary Average	.200
.325	On Base Percentage	.425
.851	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.939
0.6	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.3
6.5	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	9.0
40.0	Batter Rating	49.0
12.7	At Bats Per Home Run	35.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.90	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.51
.237	Isolated Power	.143
0.20	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.13
.050	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.024
.000	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.171
10.0	Runs Produced	14.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.6	Patience Ratio	0.6
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.5
91.3	MLB Rating	98.3
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0