Cleveland Indians hit two late home runs, avoid bullpen collapse in 8-6 win against Kansas City Royals – cleveland.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Indians hitters snapped a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning Monday, scoring five times on home runs by Eddie Rosario and Josh Naylor, and Cleveland’s typically flawless bullpen was forced to hang on for an 8-6 win against the first-place Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

After struggling to come up with a clutch hit throughout the night, all five of Cleveland’s runs in the seventh came with two outs in the inning.

Rosario launched a Jakob Junis cutter 383 feet into the right field seats with Amed Rosario and José Ramírez aboard for his third home run of the year. After a Harold Ramirez single, Naylor roped a Junis fastball into the Royals bullpen for a five-run Cleveland advantage. Manager Terry Francona said it was good for Naylor to see his approach at the plate pay off with some results.

“He’s been feeling it just because he hadn’t had the RBIs, but when he stays in the strike zone, he’s going to do some damage,” Francona said.

However, no lead is truly safe against Kansas City’s lineup as Indians relievers soon discovered in the bottom of the inning.

Bryan Shaw took over for starter Aaron Civale in the seventh and surrendered his first earned run since April 9 against Detroit. James Karinchak followed Shaw to the mound and served up a two-run home run to Hunter Dozier that cut Cleveland’s five-run lead down to two. But Karinchak, pitching for the third time in four days, struck out Carlos Santana with a runner on base in the eighth and Emmanuel Clase worked a scoreless ninth for his sixth save in seven chances.

Shaw (1-0) picked up his first win since Sept. 29, 2019 with Colorado. Civale survived some shaky defense and a strike zone that was nebulous at times to go 5 2/3 innings allowing three runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and three walks. Francona said Civale didn’t give in to Kansas City’s hitters and gave his team a chance to win.

“Again it’s one of those games where we’re not scoring a bunch of runs, but because he kept us in the game all of a sudden when we do (score), they’re meaningful,” Francona said. “That’s a compliment to a young kid.”

Cleveland’s defense looked out-of-sorts from the beginning with shortstop Amed Rosario mishandling a routine grounder by Dozier that should have gotten Civale out of the second with a pitch total in the low 30s.

Rosario’s misplay wasn’t an error, but it extended the inning for Civale by an extra 10 pitches. Jarrod Dyson singled up the middle and Nicky Lopez walked before Rosario redeemed himself with a quick throw on a grounder behind second to get the speedy Whit Merrifield for the final out of the second.

In the eighth inning, Andrés Giménez replaced Rosario at shortstop and committed an error on a ground ball by Andrew Benintendi that allowed the tying run to come to the plate in Carlos Santana.

Kansas City broke through against Civale in the third after a leadoff walk to Benintendi and Santana’s base hit. Benintendi moved to third on a fielder’s choice grounder to short by Salvador Perez and scored on Jorge Soler’s sacrifice fly to center.

Cleveland answered in the fourth with a Franmil Reyes leadoff double against Kansas City rookie lefty Daniel Lynch and an RBI double by Naylor that tied the score at 1-1.

Dozier was aboard with a leadoff triple in the fourth when Whit Merrifield smashed a home run to the seats in left. It was Merrifield’s fourth homer and his first since April 5 in Cleveland, a span of 91 at-bats.

But the Indians rallied again in the fifth on Reyes’ two-out, two-run single off Royals reliever Scott Barlow. Cesar Hernandez drew a leadoff walk and Jose Ramirez singled after an Amed Rosario fielder’s choice grounder. Rosario paid the price after legging out the grounder as Merrifield’s throw glanced off Santana’s glove and smashed his helmet into his face.

Reyes’ RBI single blistered off the bat at 112.3 mph according to Statcast. It gave him his 14th hit in his last 10 games and his first two RBI since the birth of his son, Framian, on May 1. Francona said there’s always concern about a player’s timing when he’s away for any sort of leave, but Reyes looked like he hadn’t missed a beat.

“Even in his first at-bat he looked like he had pretty good timing,” Francona said. “He came in early today and hit. I think he was excited enough where he was probably not tired.”

Lynch, making his major league debut, allowed three runs on four hits and struck out three while walking four in 4 2/3 innings.

Civale pitched into the sixth after fighting through some long innings early. He left with two out and two runners on base after a single by Lopez. Shaw walked Merrifield but got Benintendi on a ground out at first to escape damage.

Next: The series continues Tuesday as Indians rookie left-hander Sam Hentges (1-0, 4.76) will make his first major league start against Royals lefty Mike Minor (2-1, 5.26). Hentges earned his first big league win in relief against the Yankees on April 25. First pitch from Kauffman Stadium is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. The game will air on Bally Sports Great Lakes, WTAM 1100 AM, WMMS 100.7 FM and the Indians Radio Network.