Things couldn’t have gone much worse for the Kansas City Royals in the opener of a four-game series against the host Cleveland Guardians.
Guardians pitcher Slade Cecconi came within six outs of a no-hitter and the Royals tied their season high in runs allowed on Monday. Cleveland rolled to a 10-2 victory and hopped over fellow postseason hopeful Kansas City in the American League wild-card standings.
The series continues Tuesday with Royals left-hander Noah Cameron (7-6, 3.03 ERA) taking on Guardians lefty Joey Cantillo (4-3, 3.73).
“It’s one game, so we just need to show up and forget about it,” said Kansas City second baseman Michael Massey, whose leadoff single in the eighth spoiled Cecconi’s bid to make history.
“Knowing how important these games are certainly makes it more stressful than not. But you’d rather have it that way because the other side means you’re not playing for anything.”
Cleveland (73-70) and Kansas City (73-71) are both pursuing the Mariners, who sit in the third and final AL wild-card position. Seattle holds a 1 1/2-game edge over the Texas Rangers and is 2 1/2 up on the Guardians and three ahead of the Royals.
While Cecconi couldn’t pull off the franchise’s first no-no in 44 years, the right-hander snapped his eight-start winless streak.
“Everybody in that locker room believes that we’re a playoff team and we’ve believed that since the day we showed up to spring training,” said Cecconi, who tossed eight scoreless innings and gave up one hit and three walks.
“There’s not a guy who doesn’t believe we belong in October and we’re going to keep working our butts off. We’re not going to give up or give in, no matter how tight this race is.”
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said, “It’s nice to have Slade take a no-hitter into the eighth and to see the bats come alive, but there’s no momentum in baseball. It’s only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher.”
Cantillo has been terrific in his past three starts, going 2-1 with a 1.62 ERA. Road wins over the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox were sandwiched around a hard-luck loss to the Atlanta Braves.
In four career appearances against Kansas City, Cantillo is 0-1 with a 3.12 ERA. His only start vs. the Royals came on July 27, and he yielded three runs on three hits and four walks in four innings. He struck out four.
Cameron, who arrived in the majors in late April, will make his second start against Cleveland after tossing five scoreless innings vs. Cantillo in a July 27 home win. He yielded three hits and a walk while fanning six.
Cameron hasn’t won in his last three outings, giving up 11 runs in 14 2/3 innings for a 6.75 ERA.
The Royals’ only highlight in the series opener was provided by right fielder Jac Caglianone, who had a two-run single in the ninth off Zak Kent. It was his first RBI since coming off the injured list on Sept. 1, having recovered from a hamstring injury.
“Cecconi had a great game, but short-term memory is a positive,” Caglianone said. “I kind of feel like that’s the beauty of baseball. Sometimes, you do everything right and have nothing to show for it. We’ll start fresh (Tuesday).”
–Field Level Media
