Luis Ortiz struck out a career-high 10 over 5 2/3 innings and Gabriel Arias homered for a second straight game as the Cleveland Guardians won their fifth straight with a 6-3 victory Saturday night over the visiting Kansas City Royals.
Acquired from Pittsburgh in December, Ortiz (1-2) entered Saturday with an 8.44 ERA from his first two starts. But the right-hander was stellar in his home debut as he yielded only two walks and one hit — Vinnie Pasquantino’s fourth-inning homer.
Meanwhile, Arias clubbed an opposite-field solo homer in the sixth for his second hit and RBI of the night for the Guardians, who have won five straight to start 5-0 at home for the first time since 2002. Arias has homered three times versus Kansas City in 2025.
Cleveland owns a 4-1 record against the Royals this season while outscoring them 29-13.
Kansas City’s Michael Lorenzen (1-2) gave up three runs and seven hits over 5 2/3 innings. Pasquantino had three of the six hits for the Royals, who fanned 15 times Saturday but consoled themselves with two runs off Emmanuel Clase in the ninth.
Kansas City didn’t have a hit until Pasquantino cleared the right-center field wall for a 1-0 lead in the fourth. That snapped a streak of 20 1/3 scoreless innings streak by Cleveland pitchers.
The Guardians answered in the bottom of the fourth. Carlos Santana reached on a fielder’s choice, went to second when Lorenzen walked Kyle Manzardo and advanced to third on Nolan Jones’ long fly ball. He finally came home via Arias’ infield single.
The Guardians went ahead with a run in the fifth. Bo Naylor lined a single to right, then went to second when Royals first baseman Cavan Biggio didn’t cover the bag in time on a bouncer to Lorenzen. After Kansas City failed to turn a 4-6-3 double play on Steven Kwan’s grounder, Naylor scored on Jose Ramirez’s sacrifice fly to center.
The Guardians added on against Lorenzen when Arias went deep with two outs in the sixth. Angel Martinez’s ground-rule double highlighted a three-run Cleveland eighth.
Kansas City left fielder Jonathan India exited in the sixth with right quad tightness.
–Field Level Media
