Thursday, June 16, 2016
Streaky Royals roast Tribe for series sweep
KANSAS CITY, MO.
The Kansas City Royals won six straight games to take the AL Central lead, then dropped eight straight to lose it.
Now, they’re riding another five-game winning streak.
“Yeah, to say we’re streaky — it’s kind of crazy how it’s going,” said Ian Kennedy, who pitched Kansas City to a 9-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians night to polish off a three-game sweep.
The Royals have won nine straight at home, their best stretch since 2003.
Salvador Perez hit a three-run shot during a go-ahead fifth inning against Corey Kluber (6-7), while Eric Hosmer added two RBIs and Whit Merrifield remained hot to pace the Kansas City attack.
“We were on the attack early,” Hosmer said. “We took advantage of getting a lot of guys on base.”
Kennedy (5-5) allowed just five hits, including two-run homers by Rajai Davis and Michael Martinez, as he pitched into the seventh inning. He won for the first time since beating Cleveland on May 7.
Even with the two long balls, the Indians only managed seven runs the entire series.
Kluber gave up more than that in five innings Wednesday night. The 2014 Cy Young winner matched a career high by allowing eight runs and nine hits in a performance nearly as shoddy as his defense, which made two errors and probably could have been charged with a couple more.
“Yeah, to get swept is disappointing,” Kluber said. “We didn’t play very well these three games.”
Merrifield, who homered in each of the first two games, got the Royals going again with a base hit in the first inning. Consecutive doubles by Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain gave Kansas City a 2-0 lead.
Kluber also ran into trouble in the second inning, though it was caused by consecutive errors by second baseman Jason Kipnis and third baseman Martinez. Kluber bounced back to strand runners on second and third, then went through a stretch of six batters in which he struck out five.
“He’s tough,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He’s just tough.”
The Indians tied it in the fifth when Kennedy failed to cover first base on Martinez’s grounder up the line. Moments later, Davis sent a 1-2 pitch soaring over the wall in left field to tie the game.
That only lasted until the bottom half of the inning.
Drew Butera blooped a double to right that fell between Cleveland fielders, then reached third on a groundout before scampering home for the go-ahead run on Kluber’s wild pitch. Hosmer and Cain added singles, and Perez swatted his 11th homer.
Syndergaard whiffs 11 as Flores and Mets rout Bucs
NEW YORK
Noah Syndergaard struck out 11 and took a shutout into the ninth inning, Wilmer Flores homered and drove in four runs, and the New York Mets piled up a season-high 19 hits in routing the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-2.
Late replacement Kelly Johnson also homered for New York. Johnson, Rene Rivera and substitute second baseman Matt Reynolds each had three hits and two RBIs.
Yoenis Cespedes had three hits and scored three times as the Mets busted loose at the plate against lefty Jeff Locke (5-5). Shut out in the series opener the previous night, New York had been struggling to score lately with an injury-depleted lineup.
Syndergaard (7-2) received plenty of support — even if he didn’t need much. Every starting position player got a hit for the Mets, and seven of the eight had at least two.
Associated Press