By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals swept a doubleheader against the Cleveland Guardians in Cleveland on Monday.
The Royals took game one of the doubleheader early on in the afternoon, winning over the Guardians 4-3.
Kansas City fell behind 2-0 early after starting pitcher Cole Ragans struggled in the second inning. A walk, hit by pitch, and a single from Austin Hedges loaded the bases, before Ragans walked Steven Kwan for the first run. The second run came on a passed ball.
The Royals took the lead in the fourth inning on a three run home run from MJ Melendez. The call was originally a double, but after an umpire review was turned into the home run, giving the Royals a 3-2 lead.
After the Guardians would tie the game up in the bottom of the seventh inning, a single from Josh Naylor scoring Jose Ramirez, the Royals would snag the lead back on a solo home run from Bobby Witt Jr in the top of the eighth.
John Schreiber would earn the win in relief while Lucas Erceg would notch his eighth save of the season. Salvador Perez led all hitters in game one going 3 for 3 with a double, a walk, and one run scored.
The Royals offense was again on display in game two of the series as Salvador Perez homered twice in a 9-4 win.
Cleveland would again take the early lead in the game, this time in the first inning. A Jose Ramirez double would score Steven Kwan and Andrés Giménez. Ramirez would later score on a throwing error on a pickoff attempt from Royals starter Alec Marsh.
Trailing 3-0, Paul DeJong would get the Royals on the board in the top of the second, hitting his 22nd home run of the season and his fourth for Kansas City. A ground out from Perez in the third would narrow the lead more, driving in Maikel Garcia to make it a one run game.
The Royals would take their first lead of the second game in the fourth inning. A single from Garrett Hampson bringing DeJong home before a sacrifice fly from Garcia would score Dairon Blanco to give Kansas City a 4-3 lead.
The Guardians tied the game up in the bottom half of the inning on a home run from Daniel Schneemann. But Perez's first home run of the game in the fifth gave the Royals the lead once again, this time for good.
Perez's second home run came in the very next inning, a grand slam scoring the final four runs of the game. It was the 17th multi home run game of Perez's career, and his sixth grand slam, both tying George Brett and Frank White respectively for the most in franchise history.
Sam Long earned the win in relief, pitching 1.1 scoreless innings. Daniel Lynch pitched the final three innings to earn the first save of his career. Perez led all hitters once again in game two, going 2 for 4 with six RBI's.
With the two wins on Monday, Kansas City now sits just one game behind the Guardians for first place in the AL Central.
The Royals continue their four game series against the Guardians on Tuesday. Michael Lorenzen will matchup with Gavin Williams in game three of the series. First pitch is at 5:40pm with pregame at 5 on KFEQ.