Triston McKenzie allowed one run on two hits and one walk in six innings, striking out six, as the Cleveland Indians completed a three-game sweep with a 4-2 win over the host Kansas City Royals.
Owen Miller hit a three-run home run in the fifth to give McKenzie all the support he would need. Cleveland (67-64) has won 11 consecutive games against the Royals.
McKenzie (4-5), who came off the injured list on Wednesday after dealing with shoulder fatigue, improved to 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA (five earned runs on 13 hits in 32 2/3 innings) all-time against the Royals (six appearances). He has 38 strikeouts in those games.
Emmanuel Clase picked up his 20th save in 24 chances.
McKenzie kept the Royals off-balance all night, allowing only one runner past first base.
Mike Minor (8-12) took the loss for Kansas City. He gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits in five innings. He allowed only one hit in the first four innings before running into trouble in the fifth.
The Royals (59-74) got on the board in the second. Michael A. Taylor walked, went to second on an infield grounder and to third on balk. He scored on a two-out single by Hunter Dozier.
In the fifth, the Indians' Harold Ramirez reached on an error by third baseman Emmanuel Rivera leading off the inning. Yu Chang then singled before Miller hit his fourth home run of the season 390 feet into the seats in left field.
Chang's second single plated another run in the eighth. Jose Ramirez led off with a walk and advanced to second on a groundout. Chang beat the shift with a sharp single to right.
The Royals had two runners on base in the bottom of the eighth for only the second time in the game. But Salvador Perez flied out and Andrew Benintendi grounded out to end the threat.
The Royals got a run off of Clase in the ninth on an RBI groundout by Edward Olivares.
--Field Level Media
Cleveland | Kansas City | |
Triston McKenzie | Player | Mike Minor |
Win | W/L | Loss |
6.0 | IP | 5.0 |
6 | Strikeouts | 4 |
2 | Hits | 5 |
1.50 | ERA | 3.60 |
Cleveland | Kansas City | |
Yu Chang | Player | Hunter Dozier |
2 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 2 |
.500 | Avg | .500 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Cleveland | 8 | 1 | 12 | .229 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Kansas City | 6 | 0 | 8 | .176 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |