By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals could not get out of their own way Friday night, with defensive errors in the field, and struggles at the plate against Cleveland Guardians starter Tanner Bibbee on way to a 7-0 shutout loss on the road.
The Guardians benefited from two big innings, first getting three runs in the fourth inning. After Kyle Manzardo walked to open the inning, Jhonkensy Noel reached first on a fielders choice, while Manzardo reached second base thanks to a throwing error by Jonathan India. In the next at bat, all three runs scored on a home run by Gabriel Arias, his second of the season.
Kansas City settled in and held Cleveland off the scoreboard for most of the game from there, but could not find anything off of Bibbee, before the Guardians put up a four spot in the eighth inning. Nolan Jones led the inning off with a double, followed by a single from Arias. Jones came home to score on a sacrifice fly from Angel Martínez.
Arias wound up getting thrown out at second base, but with two outs Royals reliever Chris Stratton walked Austin Hedges and gave up back to back singles to Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan, Kwan's hit scoring Hedges. Another error by India, this time a fielding error, allowed José Ramírez to get to first, driving in Rocchio. Kwan scored the final run of the game on an RBI single from Carlos Santana.
Kris Bubic suffered his first loss of the season, pitching six innings and giving up three runs, two earned, on six hits while walking two and striking out five. Bubic's season ERA is now 0.96. Bobby Witt Jr led the Royals at the plate going 2-2 on a day Kansas City managed just five hits.
The Royals and Guardians back in action tomorrow, Michael Lorenzen pitching for Kansas City against Luis L. Ortiz for Cleveland. First pitch is at 5:10pm with pregame at 4:30 on KFEQ (680 AM/95.3 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.