The Cleveland Baseball Club completed the four game sweep of the Kansa City Royals.
After winning the first three games of their series with the Kansas City Royals, the Cleveland Baseball Club came into Thursday with a chance to sweep the series. That is just what they did after completing a 4-0 victory on the road to win their fifth straight game overall.
Triston McKenzie was the starter for Cleveland and this was the type of outing he truly needed. McKenzie only allowed 2 hits over 5 innings of work while striking out 5. The one area that still needs some work is the free passes as he walked 5 batters in the contest. Overall this is step in the right direction for the young pitcher.
The combination of Nick Sandlin and James Karinchak handled inning 6-8. Sandlin and Karinchak did not allow a hit and the only base runner allowed was on a walk by Karinchak.
The 9th inning got a bit dicey as the first two Royals reached base with Emmanuel Clase on the mound. Luckily Clase was able to get a double play ball and a strikeout to finish off the contest.
What about the offense?
Cleveland pounded out 11 hits in the contest as they scratched across 4 runs. The scoring started in the 2nd inning with Amed Rosario driving in Harold Ramirez.
The Cleveland lead increased to 2 with a RBI single from Jordan Luplow. Luplow drove in Rene Rivera on the play. Speaking of Rivera, the veteran catcher went 3-4 at the plate in his debut with the team, not too shabby.
In the 6th it was Rosario again, this time with triple that scored Franmil Reyes. With the two hits the contest Rosario’s batting average is back above .200 on the season.
Reyes came up to bat in the 8th and launched his eighth home run of the season to give Cleveland a little more room in the 9th.
Considering how that inning started it made things a big more palatable after the first two batters reached in the inning.
With the win Cleveland is now atop the American League Central at 17-13 on the year. They will return home to finish off their Ohio Cup series with the Reds starting Friday.
