Royals shut down by Bieber again in 4-1 loss to Guardians

Shane Bieber continued his mastery over Royals hitters by allowing just one run over eight innings in a 4-1 Royals loss on Tuesday evening. Including his Opening Day start against Kansas City, Bieber has allowed just one run in 12 ²⁄₃ innings with 11 strikeouts and just 1 walk in his two Kauffman Stadium starts, with Royals hitters batting just 6-for-44 (.136) against him.

Kris Bubic went for the Royals, and the lefty pitched well enough to win, lasting six innings for the second start in a row. The Guardians got to him for a pair of runs in the third when he let the bottom of the order get to him. Austin Hedges walked and #9 hitter Myles Straw (who has been awful in the second half) singled. Amed Rosario singled to load the bases and Royals-killer Jose Ramirez singled to plate two and make it 2-0 Cleveland.

The Royals got one run back in the fourth when Salvador Perez homered, his 20th of the season. It gives Salvy his sixth 20-home run season tied with Mike Sweeney for the second-most such seasons in club history behind only George Brett.

After a seventh-inning single with one out, Bubic would exit the game. That runner came around to score on a Straw single, giving Bubic three runs allowed on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts. He threw 69 of his 95 pitches for strikes (72 percent).

Brad Keller would give up an eighth-inning run to make it 4-1 and that would be much too great a deficit for the Royals to overcome tonight. Bieber retired 22 of the 27 Royals hitters he faced, including the last 11 batters he faced. James Karinchak shut down the Royals 1-2-3 in the ninth.

The Royals drop to 55-82 and will need to win tomorrow night to avoid the sweep. Zack Greinke is expected to start against Guardians rookie Cody Morris at 7:10 CT.