The Kansas City Royals didn’t have the type of historic rally in them like the one they put together a week ago. Instead they took a drubbing at the hands of the Cleveland Guardians as the teams reached the midpoint of their season-ending series.
Royals pitcher Max Castillo gave up seven runs, including a six-run second inning that featured a pair of three-run home runs, in a 7-5 loss to the Guardians on Sunday in front of an announced 20,622 in the third game of their six-game set at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
The Royals (64-95) have lost five of their last six games, all on their current road trip.
The Guardians (90-69) clinched the season series between the teams with the win.
Kansas City area prep product and 2016 6A Kansas Co-Player of the Year Will Brennan contributed to the first four runs by the Guardians.
The former standout at Blue Valley High School and Kansas State scored the game’s first run and drove in the next three with a three-run home run. The home run marked Brennan’s first in the major leagues. He made his debut on September 21.
Royals starting catcher Salvador Perez, a seven-time All-Star, got the day off. He came out of Saturday’s game, after his seventh-inning home run, due to left-thumb soreness. Perez had surgery on his thumb earlier this season.
Royals manager Mike Matheny told broadcaster Steve Physioc during an interview on the 610 AM pregame show that the Royals had been in touch with the surgeon who’d performed Perez’s surgery, and that Perez passed all necessary tests. The club’s medical staff had decided to be “cautious” with Perez, and his status is considered day-to-day.
Rookies MJ Melendez (3 for 5, double, RBI) and Vinnie Pasquantino (3 for 4, walk) each had three-hit games and led the way offensively for the Royals.
Royals outfielder Ryan O’Hearn (2 for 5, RBI) and designated hitter Edward Olivares (2 for 5, run scored) had two hits apiece, while rookie outfielder Drew Waters (1 for 4, walk) also drove in a run.
Royals rookie infielder Bobby Witt Jr.’s hitting streak stopped at 13 games. He went 0 for 4 with a walk.
The Guardians grabbed an early lead against Castillo courtesy of a leadoff triple by Brennan, and a sacrifice fly by Amed Rosario.
In the second inning, Brennan’s three-run home run preceded a three-run blast by Josh Naylor three batters later after back-to-back singles by Rosario and Jose Ramirez. The Guardians led 7-0 by the end of the second inning.
Castillo (0-2) managed to make it through five innings. He struck out five and allowed seven runs on eight hits and two walks.
He pitched into the sixth inning, but did not record an out in that inning. He retired 10 in a row from the end of the second inning through the fifth.
The Royals scored two runs in the fourth with the help of a throwing error and RBI single by Waters. They continued to chip away with a run in the seventh on O’Hearn’s RBI single.
Eighth-inning RBI singles by Melendez and Pasquantino pulled the Royals within two runs, 7-5, but they got no closer.
The Royals had more hits (12) than the Guardians (10), but they left 11 men on base.
