Royals catch Guardians atop AL Central with 6-1 win
CLEVELAND (AP) — Paul DeJong hit a two-run homer and the Kansas City Royals caught Cleveland atop the AL Central by beating the Guardians 6-1 on Tuesday night in a game delayed more than two hours by rain.
The Royals, who lost 106 games last season, improved to a league-best 23-13 since the All-Star break, when they trailed the Guardians by seven games.
Cleveland had been sitting alone in first in the division since April 14 before dropping the first three games in this series, which concludes with a matinee Wednesday. The Guardians have lost nine of 12 and are just 17-21 since the break.
DeJong connected in the second inning off Gavin Williams (2-7), and the Royals tacked on three runs in the seventh off Scott Barlow on RBI singles by Maikel Garcia and Michael Massey, to go along with a wild pitch.
James McArthur (5-5) struck out four in two innings, and the Royals’ solid bullpen closed with five perfect innings in the combined three-hitter.
Kansas City’s win came with a minor scare.
All-Star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. got hit on the right hand by a pitch from Pedro Avila in the seventh inning. Witt grabbed his arm in pain, but the majors’ leader in average, hits and runs stayed in the game and ripped a double in the ninth.
Cleveland was coming to bat in the bottom of the fifth — and three outs from making the game official — when the ballpark’s grounds crew rolled out the tarp at 8:06 p.m. to cover the infield before the rain hit.
When it finally came and lightning raced across the sky above Progressive Field, fans retreated for protection in the concourses. The game was delayed for 2 hours, 14 minutes before resuming at 10:20 p.m. with few thousand die-hards on hand.
DeJong’s fifth homer since joining the Royals in a July 30 trade from the White Sox made it 2-0 in the second.
Salvador Perez led off with a single, and one out later, DeJong clobbered the first pitch from Williams over the wall in right-center. DeJong also homered in Monday’s doubleheader sweep and has 23 this season.
Royals starter Mchael Lorenzen left in the second after straining his left hamstring while covering first base.
With two runners on, Lorenzen got rookie Daniel Schneemann to hit a grounder to first. The right-hander broke for the bag and took the relay throw from second before sitting down in the dirt.
Lorenzen got up slowly and went to the mound before throwing several warmup pitches while manager Matt Quatraro and a trainer looked on. He stayed in the game and struck out Thomas.
However, after Lorenzen threw one ball to Bo Naylor, Perez signaled from behind the plate to the dugout.