By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals survived the loss of their starting pitcher and a long rain delay, beating the Cleveland Guardians 2-1 on Tuesday night in Cleveland
The Royals took a two run lead in the top of the second inning thanks to third baseman Paul DeJong and his 23rd home run of the season, and his fifth as a Royal, as the ball soared over the right center field wall and drove in Salvador Perez.
Kansas City ran into their first problem in the bottom of the second inning as starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen was forced to leave the game after coming up injured covering first base on a double play. Lorenzen's injury was classified as a left hamstring strain.
Carlos Hernandez would come on in relief to finish the second, but after pitching a scoreless third inning would give up a run in the bottom of the fourth, Lane Thomas singling to score David Fry.
With the lead at one run more trouble struck as the skies opened up over Cleveland during the fifth inning and the rain started to fall, forcing the Royals and Guardians into a rain delay that lasted just over two hours.
As the game resumed at 9:40pm Central time in the bottom of the fifth, James McArthur would come on for Hernandez, striking out two of the three batters he faced as part of a 1-2-3 inning.
After a scoreless sixth inning for both teams, Kansas City would strike for three more runs in the top of the seventh. A single from Maikel Garcia scoring Garrett Hampson and advancing Adam Frazier to third.
Then on a wild pitch from Scott Barlow, Frazier would come home extending the Royals lead to three. A Michael Massey single would score Garcia for the final run of the frame.
Kansas City would add one final run in the top of the ninth inning as Freddy Fermin singled and drove in Kyle Isbel.
McArthur, John Schreiber, Sam Long, and Chris Stratton combined for five scoreless, hitless innings and struck out five batters. McArthur earned the win, improving to 5-5 on the season.
With the win the Royals have now won three straight games and are now tied with the Guardians for first place in the AL Central. The Minnesota Twins fell to the Atlanta Braves 8-6 in 10 innings, pushing them to 2.5 games back of both teams.
Kansas City will wrap up the series with the Guardians on Wednesday before heading to Houston on Thursday. Michael Wacha will start against Tanner Bibee for Cleveland. First pitch is at 12:10pm on KFEQ.