The Cleveland Guardians will look to rebound from a rare misstep and regain their footing on Friday when they open a three-game series against the host Kansas City Royals.
The Guardians had won four in a row and 11 of 13 games overall before seeing their bid for a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles fail with a 4-3 loss on Thursday afternoon.
Despite the setback, Cleveland manager Steven Vogt praised his charges as they head into their first series against Kansas City since the Guardians took four of six against the Royals across two series in the season’s early weeks.
“We love the way we’re playing right now,” Vogt said. “This was a great homestand. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys coming out of the break, to play the way they did this week and we know that it’s not going to be an easy weekend. We’ve got to come in and play really good baseball and take care of our stuff.”
Cleveland All-Star left fielder Steven Kwan took care of some stuff — and then some — on Thursday. The two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove recipient recorded his first career multi-homer game with a pair of solo shots, marking the first time that Kwan has gone deep since June 13.
“We haven’t seen him get through balls like that for the last month and a half,” Vogt said. “We’re glad to have him back and clicking at the top of the order.”
Cleveland will turn to Gavin Williams (6-4, 3.54 ERA) to start the Friday game against Kansas City’s Michael Wacha (4-9, 3.62) in a battle of right-handers.
On Sunday, Williams pocketed his first win since June 1. He allowed one run on four hits with 11 strikeouts over a career-high-tying seven innings in an 8-2 victory over the Athletics.
While those numbers are impressive, Williams appeared focused on a different number: one. He issued just one walk to the A’s after entering the contest with a major-league-high 57 free passes.
“It just comes down to pounding the zone and not being too fine between each pitch,” Williams said, per Cleveland.com. “I felt like I was nibbling way too much and trying to hit the outer half when I can just throw it in the zone and if I give up weak contact, that would be way better than a walk.”
Williams, 25, allowed two runs on four hits in five-plus innings in a no-decision against Kansas City on March 29. He is 2-1 with a 2.14 ERA in six career encounters vs. the Royals.
Wacha, 34, saw his winless stretch extend to five outings despite yielding one run in each of his last two trips to the mound.
He also permitted one run in his latest meeting with Cleveland, although four walks elevated his pitch count and led to his exit after four innings on March 30. He took the loss in that contest to fall to 2-2 with a 2.61 ERA in seven career appearances (all starts) against the Guardians.
The Royals are returning home after winning three of the final four contests to conclude a six-game road trip following the All-Star break.
Vinnie Pasquantino belted a pair of two-run homers in Kansas City’s 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. He went 7-for-19 (.368) with two homers and four RBIs in the previous two series vs. Cleveland.
“We believe in this group of guys,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “We’ve had injuries just like everybody else, but at the same time, we believe we can play good baseball and win a lot of games.”
Kansas City’s Salvador Perez has gone deep five times in his past five games to boost his home run total to a team-best 18 on the season.
–Field Level Media
