Indians ride early barrage to 4-1 win over Royals

This is going to be one of the shortest recaps of the season, and it’s because there just isn’t very much to report.

The Indians beat the Royals, 4-1, on Tuesday night in a game that was over around the time games typically start here.

Daniel Lynch was done in by a three-run first, when he opened his outing with two walks and a single. He got a strikeout, but Yu Chang hit a bases-clearing triple to left field, and it came with plenty of controversy. Andrew Benintendi originally moved back, slipped a bit, ran forward to try to catch a line drive that he should have handled, slipped again, and missed it. It rolled to the wall. He should have caught the ball, but Lynch put himself in a bad spot with the baserunners that proceeded the triple.

Cleveland got another run in the second on a solo home run by Ernie Clement. Lynch tossed four shutout innings to close out his night, but the damage was done. Lynch: six innings, four hits, four runs, three walks, five strikeouts. The early walks were brutal. All things considered, he turned a disaster start into a “whatever” one, so I guess there’s that.

The Royals’ lone run came courtesy of Hunter Dozier, who hit his 15th home run of the year in the seventh. Dozier is putting together a nice September, which will surely convince the front office that his terrible 2021 was all because of his thumb and he therefore absolutely needs another full season of everyday at bats. You can feel the excitement.

Kansas City out-hit Cleveland 9-5. Dylan Coleman made his MLB debut and tossed a scoreless seventh inning. Nicky Lopez is up to .304. These are the highlights.

The Royals are 69-83. The four-game series concludes tomorrow with Carlos Hernandez on the bump in another 5:10 pm start.