KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A night after a disappointing loss, the Royals showed that they are refusing to go quietly. Staked to an early 3-0 lead, Kansas City pitching got the job done on Wednesday with five good innings from Bruce Chen and four outstanding innings from the bullpen.
The Royals raced ahead after Salvador Perez hit a two-run double and then came home himself on a wild pitch from Cleveland starter Danny Salazar. Bruce Chen worked around a difficult third inning where he gave up two runs, aided by a Jarrod Dyson error. In all Chen pitched five innings, only surrendering those two runs, while giving up four hits.
The Royals answered the Indians’ runs on a crazy play in the fifth inning. Alex Gordon was initially caught in a rundown between first and second base. As the Indians attempted to tag Gordon, Alcides Escobar got caught by Cleveland infielders between third base and home plate. Escobar went for broke and evaded the tag of catcher Yan Gomes and ended up with a steal of home.
After that the bullpen put the Indians on total lockdown. Chen started the sixth, but allowed the first two runners to reach base and was pulled for Francisley Bueno. Bueno retired the only two batters he faced and gave way to Louis Coleman, who got Ryan Raburn to fly out to right and ended Cleveland’s last threat.
In four collective innings a quintet of relievers only surrendered one hit and didn’t allow a walk. Greg Holland only needed eight pitches in the bottom of the ninth to send the Indians out with a whimper.
The Royals tighten the wild card race with the win and now stand only 2.5 games back of the Texas Rangers, who they have a chance to take on head-to-head for the team’s final three games at Kauffman Stadium this year. The Royals send Ervin Santana, Jeremy Guthrie and James Shields to the hill for starts in what is probably the biggest series at Kauffman Stadium since Ronald Reagan was President of the United States.
