Field Level Media
May 13, 2018
Jose Ramirez, Yan Gomes and Michael Brantley hit home runs to back the strong pitching of Corey Kluber on Sunday afternoon, lifting the Cleveland Indians to an 11-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals in Cleveland.
Staked to a 5-0 lead in the second inning, Kluber (6-2) became the American League's first six-game winner, allowing just two runs, both of which were unearned, in seven innings. He gave up eight hits and did not walk a batter, striking out four.
The Indians took advantage of the Royals' inability to turn a double play on either of two fielder's choice ground balls to score five times in the second inning, with Ramirez capping the uprising with a three-run homer off Kansas City starter Danny Duffy.
The first two Cleveland runs scored on infield outs by Greg Allen and Brantley, the latter which potentially could have ended the inning with just one run allowed had the Royals turned a double play.
Instead, a second run scored, and Ramirez followed with his homer, his 12th of the season, to increase the Cleveland lead to 5-0.
Gomes, who had led off the second inning with a double, also got the third inning rolling with a single. He came around to score this time on a single by Francisco Lindor for a 6-0 advantage.
Duffy walked Ramirez and gave up a single to Brandon Guyer in the fourth before Gomes smacked his fifth homer of the season, a three-run shot that made it 9-0 and ended the left-hander's day.
Duffy (1-5) was charged with nine runs in 3 1/3 innings. He allowed eight hits and five walks, striking out two.
The Royals ended Kluber's shutout bid in the sixth after an inning-opening error on Ramirez, the Indians' third baseman.
Salvador Perez got Kansas City on the board with a one-out double, and he came around on Whit Merrifield's two-out single that closed the gap to 9-2.
The Indians got those two runs back in the seventh on Brantley's fifth homer of the season.
Ramirez, Gomes and Brantley drove in three runs apiece for the Indians, who won two of three from the Royals in the series.
Gomes had four hits, including a double to complement his home run, and scored three times.
Lindor collected three hits, including a double, while Ramirez and Allen had two hits apiece for Cleveland, which out-hit Kansas City 15-9.
Perez and Alex Gordon had two hits apiece for the Royals, who completed a 2-4 trip to Baltimore and Cleveland, losing two of three at both sites.
--Field Level Media