Cleveland’s climb in the wild-card race was slowed by the Royals, who got a strong outing from Kris Medlen (4-1) and a homer from Alex Rios off Tomlin in the fifth that launched some unintentional fireworks.
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Medlen, an offseason signing coming off his second Tommy John surgery, is now 4-1 with a 3.92 ERA.
Rios homered in the fifth inning off Josh Tomlin (5-2) for the Royals, who won for just the third time in 11 games as they close in on the American League Central title. A moonshot down the leftfield line by the right fielder in the 5 gave the Royals their second run of the game. That home run came with some unexpected celebrations, as fireworks were accidentally set off as Rios rounded the bases, garnering a loud chorus of boos from the home fans.
Like his teammates, the gifted 21-year-old Lindor, who has batted.309 with eight homers, 37 RBIs and led the team in smiles since being promoted in June, believes the Indians can finish what they’ve started. Despite hitting a home run leading off the first inning Monday, Kipnis is hitting.130 in September (6-46) and.190 since August 1 (19-100).
Tomlin pitched a complete game four-hitter, with six strikeouts and no walks, but still took the loss.
“I think Kluber is very confident that that’ll happen”, Francona said. “I was glad we got the ground ball”. “It doesn’t matter how well I pitch, if their guy does better than me on the other side then it’s still a loss”.
“We need wins”, said Tomlin.
Good news is that Baltimore didn’t sweep our KC Royals but it was the second straight series defeat. Center fielder Lorenzo Cain and catcher Salvador Perez had two hits apiece.
“The first pitch of the game, you’re already like, ‘Here we go”, manager Terry Francona said.
Carlos Carrasco made his second start since returning from the disabled list. Indians SS Francisco Lindor leads major league rookies with a.309 batting average. “More than anything else, Johnny is not establishing his fastball down in the zone”, Yost said. “I’m fine”.
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Indians: RHP Corey Kluber (right hamstring) threw a pregame bullpen session and will perform fielding drills Tuesday. His starts have been getting better and better. He gathered the ball from the grass quickly and got the lead runner at third, but when Moustakas turned to get the double play at second base, no Royal defender was anywhere in the vicinity as the middle infield had needed to shift to the corners when the bunt was laid down.
