Cleveland Indians Beat Royals Again, Take Over First Place

Wearing their 1976 throwback jerseys, the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 7-1 for the third straight night. The win was the Tribe’s fourth in a row and moved them into sole possession of first place in the American League Central at 30-24. The loss drops the Royals to 30-25, a half-game behind the Indians. 

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The Indians got another great performance by their starting pitcher, this time by Josh Tomlin who moved to 8-1 on the season. He worked 6 1/3 innings allowing just one run on seven hits. He walked just one and struck out four.  After working six scoreless innings to begin the game, Tomlin allowed a one-out bloop single to Reymond Fuentes that scored Kendrys Morales. Reliever Jeff Manship came on to finish the 7th and worked a spotless 8th retiring all five batters he faced.  Dan Otero then worked a perfect 9th to preserve the victory and lowering his season ERA to 0.78.

The Indians got on the board in the 2nd inning on a sacrifice fly by Chris Gimenez, scoring Lonnie Chisenhall. That was all the Indians were able to get through the first five innings off Royals starter Ian Kennedy, who fell to 4-4 on the year. In the 6th inning, however, they were able to get to him and broke the game open with a four-spot. With one out, Mike Napoli hit a solo home run to left, his 13th of the season to make it 2-0. Rajai Davis then made it 3-0 Tribe with an RBI single driving in Chisenhall. Three pitches later, Tyler Naquin hit a two-run home run to right center field making it 5-0 Indians. It was Naquin’s second home run in as many days after he hit his first career home run in yesterday’s contest.

The Indians stretched the lead to 7-1 in the bottom of the 7th on a two-run home run by Francisco Lindor, his fifth of the season. It was Lindor’s third extra base hit of the evening, becoming the first Indian to accomplish the feat in 2016. Lindor also made the play of the night in the field in the 9th inning, robbing Morales of a hit with a little help from third baseman Jose Ramirez.

Next: Jose Ramirez is Playing Like an All-Star

The Indians will go for the series sweep of the Royals tomorrow afternoon as the two clubs clash at 1:10 pm.  Corey Kluber (4-6, 4.15 ERA) will take the hill for the Indians while the Royals will counter with Chris Young (2-5, 5.94). The Indians will look to finish off their 10-game homestand on a high note before they head on the road for a 10-game road trip. The Indians will head to Seattle to take on the Mariners.