Kris Bubic went five dominant innings, Drew Waters and Salvador Perez each homered and the Kansas City Royals evened their weekend series with the rival Cleveland Guardians Saturday night with a 7-1 win in Cleveland.
Bubic (3-13) enjoyed one of his better starts of a tough 2022 campaign, tossing five frames of shutout ball while striking out a season-high eight against just one walk, earning his third victory of the season in the process.
The Royals’ offense made it difficult on Guardians (89-69) right-hander Zach Plesac (3-12) who returned from the 15-Day IL (hand) to make his first start since Aug. 27.
After opening the scoring in the top half of the third inning, the Royals (64-94) tacked on three more in the fourth to knock Plesac out of the game. Kyle Isbel delivered a two-out, two-run double down the right field line to provide the road side with a 3-0 lead before MJ Melendez doubled immediately after, scoring Isbel to put the Royals up by four.
Plesac ended his evening with 3 2/3 innings of four-run ball (one earned), allowing seven hits while striking out just one versus one walk.
In addition to a sixth-inning home run, Waters also doubled and scored a pair of runs to lead the Kansas City offensive attack.
Perez led off the seventh with a solo shot of his own, his 23rd of the season, placing him third among major league catchers. He’s now homered at least 23 times in each of his last four seasons excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.
Guardians catcher Luke Maile collected two hits on the night before departing in lieu of rookie Bo Naylor, who was promoted from Triple-A Columbus prior to the game and is the brother of teammate Josh Naylor. Maile was the lone Guardians hitter to record a multi-hit effort.
Oscar Gonzalez scored the lone Guardians run after doubling in the sixth followed by an Owen Miller double. Gonzalez has hits in 16 of his last 19 contests.
–Field Level Media