Cleveland stomps all over Royals, 14-6

I come before you, a writer charged with telling you about the baseball game that just finished in an interesting way. This is a task I take very seriously. However, much like the Royals’ pitching staff, I’m not sure I’m up to the task, tonight.

Salvador Perez gave the Royals the first lead with a two-run, no-doubt shot in the top of the fourth off of Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill. It’s going to be a lot of fun watching him in the Home Run Derby on Monday; I swear his raw power improves every year. Mike Minor promptly allowed six runs in the bottom of the inning capped by a Cesar Hernandez three-run home run. The Royals would not so much as bring the go-ahead run to the plate again.

Ervin Santana came on in relief; he didn’t pitch well. Richard Lovelady appeared next; he retired two hitters but hit the jersey of the third. Kyle Zimmer came in and allowed the inherited runner to score before allowing a three-run home run to Oscar Mercado all before he retired his first batter. Anthony Swarzak, not wanting to be left out, relieved Zimmer and gave up a home run to José Ramírez.

If you want to see Salvy’s bomb and the homer hit by Andrew Benintendi in the sixth, here they are:

Notes

• The Royals loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh inning and managed to score all three runners; it took two “productive outs” and an... interesting play that was ruled a single to get it done.
• Kyle Zimmer finally faced his brother, Bradley Zimmer, for the first time in the big leagues. He struck him out, including a couple of very impressive pitches to start off the at-bat. Unfortunately, those were the only two high-quality pitches Zimmer threw all night and Bradley the only batter he retired.
• It’s been said that a four-game sweep is a hard thing to achieve. If the Royals lose tomorrow, they will have participated in four such sweeps. They won one against Detroit and previously lost one each to Boston and Cleveland.
• Cleveland played “The Final Countdown” as walk-up music for Andrew Benintendi’s walk-up music when he represented the final out of the game. I have to respect that.

The Royals will have a chance to earn their fifth losing streak of five games or more before the All-Star Break when they finish the series in Cleveland tomorrow afternoon. Kansas City still hasn’t announced their starter for the game at the time of publication. Cleveland will rely on rookie Eli Morgan (1-3, 8.44 ERA), making his sixth career start.