Guardians avoid sweep, comeback against Royals with win to take first place in AL Central

The Cleveland Guardians recorded a come-from-behind 7-5 win against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday (box score), ensuring they won’t fall to second place in the American League Central for the first time since April 13. The Guardians previously saw their streak of uncontested days at the top of the division snapped with a third consecutive loss to the Royals on Tuesday.

Kansas City jumped out to an early lead on Wednesday, with Michael Masi, Vinny Pasquantino and Bobby Witt Jr. hitting solo home runs in the first three innings to take a 3-1 lead. The Royals later took a 5-2 lead in the sixth thanks to timely hits from Adam Frazier and Maikel Garcia.

The Guardians came back in the seventh as the Royals demanded one more inning from starter Michael Wacha. Bo Naylor hit a solo home run to increase the lead to 5-3. From there, the Guardians saw Josh Naylor, Will Brennan and Jhonenci Noel drive in runs to take a 6-5 lead in the eighth inning. Andres Jimenez lifted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth to make the score 7-5.

Cleveland’s usually excellent bullpen managed four shutout innings in relief of starter Tanner Bibby, who gave up five runs (including three home runs) in five frames. Tim Herrin recorded two outs; Eli Morgan four; and Hunter Gaddis and closer Emmanuel Class recorded three outs each, with Class also tying Cody Allen for the most saves in franchise history with 149. (Our Matt Snyder recently took a look at Class’ chances of making a splash in the American League Cy Young Award race.)

The Royals will now travel to Houston and take on the Astros in four games this weekend. They will then reprise their rivalry with the same Guardians in Kansas City, completing the season series with three games next week. It is worth noting that the Royals won the season series against the Guardians, meaning they have the edge in a tie at the top of the division.

The Guardians, meanwhile, will have Thursday off and resume their season on Friday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.