Lake County Sentinel
Indians hold off Royals 5-2
BY ANDREW GUARINO
INDIANS BEAT WRITER
The Cleveland Indians defeated the Kansas City Royals Monday evening by a final score of 5-2 from Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Indians' offense once again got rolling early. In the bottom half of the second inning, the Indians got back-to-back singles from Carlos Santana and Franmil Reyes to lead off the inning. Tyler Naquin then grounded out to Royals' second baseman Whit Merrifield who couldn't grab the hard grounder and it bounced off his glove into center field, which allowed Carlos Santana to score. Josh Naylor was next and he had an RBI ground out to make it 2-0 Cleveland. Tyler Naquin was able to collect his second RBI of the game in the fourth inning on a sac fly to to left field which scored Francisco Lindor.
It took the Royals until the seventh inning to get their first run off of Zach Plesac. Adalberto Mondesi went deep to cut the Indians lead to 3-1. The Indians answered right back in the bottom half of the seventh. The first three batters reached - Josh Naylor led off the inning, followed by Roberto Perez and then Oscar Mercado, who got the Indians the third straight single. This allowed Mercado was to score Naylor, making it a three-run game once again. The Indians then got one more run on a sac fly by Mike Freeman, who replaced Jose Ramirez, to make it 5-1 Indians. The Indians later announced that Jose Ramirez was removed from the game due to left thumb discomfort.
The Royals scored their final run of the game in the eighth. Adam Cimber came into the game to replace Zach Plesac. Cimber allowed a triple to Hunter Dozier, who scored on a Maikel Franco single to make it 5-2.
Since coming back from the alternate training site, Zach Plesac has been terrific for Cleveland. He is 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA.
Next up for Cleveland is game two of the three game series with the Kansas City Royals. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10pm Tuesday evening from Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. The Indians will send rookie sensation Triston McKenzie to the hill; he is 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA on the year. This will be his first career start against Kansas City. The Royals will counter with Jakob Junis, who is 0-1 with an ERA of 4.32 on the season. In the 2019 season, Junis faced the Indians six times, going 1-4 with an ERA of 6.55.
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POSTED 09/07/2020 21:25
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