Royals ride six-run seventh inning to 11-5 win over Cleveland Indians

The scoreboard does not measure aesthetics, but on a night marred by unsightly play from both sides, the motion of Kendrys Morales at the plate qualified as beauty.

Morales lifted his right leg to time his swing against Indians reliever Bryan Shaw. He held his stance in repose as he recognized a slider. When Morales swung, he did not stride. He whipped his hands through the strike zone and blasted a three-run homer over the right-field fence for the capping blow in a 11-5 Royals victory over Cleveland.

Morales concluded a six-run, seventh inning with his third home run of the season. The team came back from a two-run deficit after a brief effort from starter Jeremy Guthrie and a disquieting outing by rookie Brandon Finnegan. Granted only nine outs to recoup the deficit, Kansas City (14-6) blasted back into the lead in short order. They capitalized on shoddy Indians defense, thumped infirm relief pitching and notched 18 hits to take their second game in a row.

“The whole vibe is to not give up,” said Christian Colon, who translated for Morales. “The feeling in the locker room and on the bench is to not give up, to keep putting at-bats together, and to make sure that we’re getting on base.”

Morales personified this ethic on Tuesday. He scored four runs to go along with three hits and three RBI. Six other teammates contribute multi-hit nights. Alex Gordon crushed a 428-foot home run. The Royals have now walloped Indians stalwarts Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer on consecutive nights. After their comeback, the Royals conducted a symphony of silence at this park.

The small crowd at Progressive Field still stirred with life as the seventh began. Brandon Moss had just detonated a three-run shot off Finnegan. Then Salvador Perez singled and Omar Infante doubled. Alcides Escobar plated them both with an opposite-field double. “He did just what he needed to do,” manager Ned Yost said, praising Escobar for shortening his swing against reliever Scott Atchison on a full-count fastball.

With the score tied, the Indians committed a pair of mistakes that gave the Royals the lead. The oddities commenced when Mike Moustakas cracked a sinker from lefty Marc Rzepczynski off the plate. The ball bounced toward first baseman Carlos Santana, who fed a running Rzepczynski. Except the pitcher missed the bag with his right foot. Moustakas reached safely before stumbling into the dirt.

Behind the bag, Escobar kept running. Rzepczynski whirled home. His throw arrived before Escobar. But Escobar slid and kicked the ball free from the glove of former Royal Brett Hayes. Hayes raised his arm in triumph, only to notice the ball in the grass. Three batters later, Morales rendered all of Cleveland’s hopes as folly.

The victory obscured an unpleasant night from the first two pitchers. Guthrie continued a disturbing trend of brevity with the starting staff. He lasted only five innings. He was charged with four runs as the staff ERA rose to 4.24. His own is 5.89. After a seven-inning outing in his season debut, Guthrie has struggled to find traction.

“Every game has been kind of a battle thus far,” Guthrie said.

A tidy matchup with Bauer unraveled after five innings. Bauer wore red and gold Everlast gloves in the Cleveland dugout the night before. Kansas City found funny the apparent nod to their pugilistic weekend in Chicago. A day later, Gordon landed the game’s first blow.

When Bauer offered a hittable fastball in the second inning, Gordon walloped the pitch onto the concourse above the seats in the right-field stands. On April 15, Gordon was hitting just .150. He raised that mark to .293 on Tuesday. This was his second home run in three games, and a sign of improvement with his surgically-repaired right wrist.

“I guess the wrist is feeling better,” Gordon said. He added, “It’s responding a lot better, which is what the problem was, playing back-to-back games, over and over again. Just getting fatigued.”

Cleveland pulled ahead in the bottom of the inning. Moss reached on an infield single that Infante couldn’t convert into an out. Third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall followed up with another hit. With two outs, Guthrie skipped a fastball between Perez’s legs. Both runners were in scoring position for Michael Bourn’s two-run single.

Infante atoned with his bat in the fourth. Morales opened the sequence with a one-out single. Gordon walked behind him. Infante stroked a fastball into center field. Morales chugged home as outfielder Michael Bourn came up throwing. Bauer opted to cut the ball off. Gordon was caught in a rundown, but the game was tied.

Two innings later, Morales stoked more offensive output. The Royals wore out the throwing arm of Moss in the process. Morales roped a two-out bullet that kissed inside the right field line. Second baseman Jason Kipnis intercepted Moss’ throw, and Morales slide in safely.

“There’s a lot of things that he can do,” Yost said. “He can hit for power. He understands what he’s trying to do when he gets in the box. Puts the ball in play. It’s a nice addition.”

Up next was Gordon. He whacked a changeup into right. Morales rounded third as Moss chucked the ball home. The throw dragged Hayes up the third-base line, and the Royals reclaimed the lead.

At this point, Guthrie possessed a pitch count of 82. He had only given up a single since the second inning. But in his third turn through the order, he waded into danger. Michael Brantley roped a single and Carlos Santana walked. Yost turned to the youngest player on his roster and away from Guthrie

“That’s a tough decision right there, to take him out of that ballgame,” Yost said. “I thought he was still throwing the ball well. His pitch count was in good shape. But he was facing guys that historically had really good success against him.”

Yost felt Finnegan was a good match for left-handed hitters like Moss and David Murphy. The novelty of last September felt long gone when the bullpen door opened for Finnegan. He last came to Progressive Field in the early stages of a historic journey, on his way to becoming the first man ever to pitch in the College World Series and its big-league equivalent in one year. He came to this park on Tuesday as a professional looking to remain in the majors.

He admitted he was jittery for his 2015 debut. He insisted he never experienced that emotion in 2014.

“I was definitely nervous for the first time in a while,” Finnegan said. “I came into a high-pressure situation. It’s something I’m used to. I should have gotten out of the inning.”

Indeed, the circumstances were treacherous. But this is the major leagues. Both runners advanced on a passed ball when Finnegan miscommunicated with Perez. Then Moss blitzed a sinker for a three-run home run. The Royals were down. But they declined to stay there.

As a scoring quirk, Finnegan received the first regular-season win of his career. He disliked his status as a vulture. He can remember this night not as an individual achievement, but as a sign of his team’s unflagging spirit.

“It sucks,” Finnegan said. “You definitely want that to come on better terms. But the team won. They had my back. They came back in the next inning and scored six. That’s the type of team they are. They don’t stop fighting.”

Royals 11, Indians 5

E: Hayes (1). LOB: Kansas City 7, Cleveland 7. 2B: A.Escobar (6), Hosmer (4), K.Morales (6), Infante (6), Brantley (5). HR: A.Gordon (3), off Bauer; K.Morales (3), off Shaw; Moss (4), off Finnegan. RBIs: A.Escobar 2 (8), Moustakas (8), K.Morales 3 (14), A.Gordon 2 (11), S.Perez (13), Infante 2 (7), Moss 3 (14), Bourn 2 (4). SB: Bourn (2). CS:A.Gordon (2), J.Ramirez (1), C.Santana (1).

Runners left in scoring position: Kansas City 3 (K.Morales, Moustakas, J.Dyson); Cleveland 4 (C.Santana, J.Ramirez 3). RISP: Kansas City 7 for 14; Cleveland 2 for 6. GIDP: Moustakas, Infante. DP: Cleveland 2 (Bauer, J.Ramirez, C.Santana), (Kipnis, J.Ramirez, C.Santana).

Guthrie pitched to 2 batters in the 6th.

Inherited runners-scored: Finnegan 2-2, Rzepczynski 1-1, Shaw 2-2. IBB:off Rzepczynski (L.Cain). HBP: by Finnegan (Kipnis). WP: Guthrie. PB:S.Perez. Balk: Bauer. Blown save: Atchison (1), Finnegan (1).

Umpires: Home, Andy Fletcher; First, Jerry Meals; Second, Paul Emmel; Third, Jordan Baker. Time:3:13. A:10,698.

This story was originally published April 28, 2015 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Royals ride six-run seventh inning to 11-5 win over Cleveland Indians."