Cleveland Indians Swept out of Kansas City After 9-4 Loss

The Cleveland Indians were swept by the Kansas City Royals last night after an ugly 9-4 defeat at Kaufmann Stadium. Too many fielding mistakes and too few timely hits cost the Indians big time. The loss drops them to 35-30 on the season and into a first-place tie with the Kansas City Royals who are also 35-30 now. Despite being swept, the Indians still hold a 6-4 lead in the season series with the Royals.

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Tribe starter Corey Kluber (6-7) had an ugly statistical night. He allowed eight runs, all “earned” in just five innings of work. He allowed nine hits and walked one. However, he pitched a lot better than the numbers indicated. He struck out seven on the night and outside of a shaky first inning, the Royals weren’t able to square up much off the Tribe ace. The defense, however, let Kluber down in a big way most of the night.

The Royals got on the board in the bottom of the 1st inning on some hard hit balls. Whit Merrifield continued his hot series with a leadoff single. He came around to score on an RBI double by Eric Hosmer, who himself scored on a Lorenzo Cain double making it 2-0 Royals. That’s all the Royals got through until the 5th inning when backup catcher Drew Butera hit a “double” on what looked like a routine popup to shallow center field. However, the Indians outfield was playing way too deep (something they did all series) and neither Tyler Naquin nor Lonnie Chisenhall was able to catch the ball that dropped for a hit and scooted by the pair. No error was rewarded but it was a play that should have been made. Butera would later score on a wild pitch with two outs in the inning, giving the Royals a 3-2 lead. Had Naquin made the catch Kluber would have been out of the inning 1-2-3…

However, the floodgates opened after the wild pitch. Kluber got Hosmer to ground to third base, but Michael Martinez, who made an error earlier in the game, wasn’t able to throw Hosmer out after initially making a great stop. Mike Napoli was not able to pick the low throw. The next batter, Lorenzo Cain, then popped up to right field on what looked like a routine out; however, once again the Tribe outfield was playing far too deep and the ball dropped in front of Chisenhall. Salvador Perez would make the Indians pay again with a three-run home run on a poorly placed pitch giving the Royals a four-run inning and 6-2 lead.

Kluber was tagged for two more runs in the 6th inning after he started the inning and gave up a couple singles, the second a routine double play ball that went for a hit thanks to a hit-and-run by the Royals. Typically reliable Dan Otero would come on to replace Kluber but didn’t record an out, giving up a pair of hits himself and allowing a run and loading the bases. Tom Gorzelanny would come in and get the first out of the inning on a Hosmer groundout that scored the second run of the inning and making it 8-2 Royals. Jeff Manship, the fourth Tribe pitcher to work in the 6th inning, would get the last two outs of the inning but not before walking Cheslor Cuthbert with the bases loaded making it 9-2 Royals. Zach McAllister and Cody Allen would work scoreless innings in the 7th and 8th, respectively, but the damage was more than done by then.

Offensively the Indians continued to struggle, recording just five hits on the night, three of them by veteran utility man Michael Martinez. In fact, virtually all the of the Indians’ scoring was a result of Martinez. With two outs in the 5th inning, Martinez hustled down the line on a hard grounder to first baseman Eric Hosmer. Martinez would beat Hosmer to the bag for a single, extending the inning. Rajai Davis would make the Royals pay with a two-run home run, tying the game at 2-2 at the time. If Martinez doesn’t hustle out of the box, the inning would have been over before Davis came to the plate. Martinez would later add a two-run home run, his first of the season, to make the score 9-4.

Next: Indians Have Versaility to Give Uribe Time to Recover

The Indians will limp home after a long ten-day, ten-game road trip in which they went 4-6. On the trip, they saw their 1.5 game lead in the Central Division reduced to a tie. Not the ideal scenario but they’ll have six games at home to turn things around beginning tomorrow night against the Chicago White Sox. Trevor Bauer (4-2, 3.69 ERA) will take on Jose Quintana (5-7, 2.66) in the series opener.

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