Cleveland Guardians vs Kansas City Royals Match Player Stats On Aug 31, 2021

Amed Rosario was 5-for-5 with two home runs and five RBIs as the Cleveland Indians defeated the host Kansas City Royals 7-2 on Tuesday night in the first game of a three-game series.

It was Rosario's second career multi-homer game, his first five-RBI game and his second five-hit game.

Zach Plesac (9-4) earned the win for the Indians with seven scoreless innings. He allowed just two hits, striking out seven and walking none, though he did hit a batter.

Salvador Perez, who was named the American League player of the week on Monday, was hitless (0-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch). He's now 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in his career off Plesac. Perez just finished a 10-game road trip where he batted.324 with eight home runs and 16 RBIs, including home runs in his last five games.

Jakob Junis (2-4) took the loss for Kansas City. He gave up three runs on four hits in 4 2/3 innings in his first appearance with the big-league club since June 3. He had been sent to Triple-A Omaha, where he had four starts before going on the injured list with a shoulder injury that caused him to miss almost seven weeks.

The Indians got on the board in the first inning when Rosario hit an inside-the-park home run, the Indians' first since Aug. 24, 2018, when Jason Kipnis also did it in Kansas City. Rosario's slicing drive to right field just eluded the glove of right fielder Edward Olivares and caromed away. Olivares got back on his feet and threw home, but not in time.

Rosario came through again in the third with a two-out, two-run single. The Indians had runners on first and third when Joel Payamps came out of the bullpen to relieve Junis and allowed Rosario's single up the middle.

Rosario then unloaded a 420-foot home run to dead center field in the seventh, off Kyle Zimmer.

The Indians' final two runs came on an eighth-inning home run by Bobby Bradley.

Carlos Santana and Andrew Benintendi drove in runs for the Royals in the ninth.

--Field Level Media