Sal Perez hits 20th home run of season in KC Royals’ 4-1 loss to Cleveland Guardians
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Kris Bubic turned in a solid pitching performance, but that wasn’t going to get it done Tuesday night when Shane Bieber was in top form.
Bieber, the Cleveland Guardians ace and a former Cy Young Award winner, held the Royals to four hits and one walk over eight innings. Bieber also struck out seven.
The Royals’ lone run came on a solo home run in the fourth by star catcher Salvador Perez as they lost to the Guardians for the second night in a row, 4-1, in front of an announced 12,580 plus an additional 447 dogs for Bark in the Park night at Kauffman Stadium.
The Guardians clinched the three-game series with the win. The Royals (55-82) hadn’t lost a series to the Guardians in KC since they were swept in three games last season from August 31-Sept. 2.
The division rivals will conclude their series Wednesday night.
“We know he’s a strike-thrower,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Bieber. “Unfortunately, we made a lot of early outs and that gave him the ability to go as deep into the game as he did. He’s just a different style of pitcher than what we’d saw with the heavy use of that cutter. That pitch is just finding its way off the barrel. The balls that we did hit hard, seemed to find somebody.”
The Royals best chance to make some noise against Bieber (9-8) came in the second inning after a one-out Michael A. Taylor single followed by a Ryan O’Hearn single to put runners on the corners. But Hunter Dozier grounded sharply to second base on a tailor-made double play ball that ended the inning.
“I think we only had a guy on third base once all day,” Matheny said. “I don’t think anybody was even at second. We had very few base runners. But the double play kicks the wind out of you. That’s one where we talk about the ability to take advantage of those just to make a mark and to get something positive moving in the right direction after a couple singles. (We had) an opportunity. We can’t let those slip by when you know it’s going to be a close game with a guy like that.”
With his solo home run, Perez reached the 20-homer plateau for the sixth time in his career. That tied him with Mike Sweeney for the second-most seasons of at least 20 home runs in franchise history. George Brett’s eight seasons of 20 homers or more are the most by a Royals player.
“Myself, I chased a lot of pitches off the plate,” Perez said of facing Bieber. “Even the homer that I hit was off the plate. He’s good. He commands the ball really good.”
Taylor (2 for 3) had two of the Royals’ four hits, while O’Hearn (1 for 3) had the only other hit for the Royals. MJ Melendez (0 for 3) drew the lone walk from Bieber.
The Guardians (70-64) took a 2-0 lead in the third inning following a one-out walk by Austin Hedges and a single by Myles Straw. Then with two outs, Bubic gave up a single to Amed Rosario which loaded the bases in front of Guardians star slugger Jose Ramirez.
Ramirez hit a two-run single to left field to give him his 107th and 108th RBIs of the season.
Perez’s fourth-inning homer to the opposite field and into the home bullpen, pulled the Royals within a run. Taylor then singled with two outs, but he broke early for second base on a stolen base attempt and got thrown out easily by Bieber to end the inning.
Bubic (2-11) struck out a batter and gave up an infield single in the seventh inning. First baseman Nick Pratto ranged far to his right to snag the ball hit on the ground, but Bubic did not beat the batter, Tyler Freeman, to first base in time to record an out.
With his pitch count at 95 pitches and having faced the majority of the lineup for a third time, Bubic gave way to reliever Jose Cuas. At that point when Bubic exited the game, the Royals trailed 2-1.
“The mistakes were magnified,” Bubic said of his outing. “Obviously, the two biggest ones being the walk to Hedges in the third inning and being late to cover first base there at the end. Obviously, those two turned into runs. I can’t let that happen.
“But overall, I was able to pitch fairly deep into the game and give our team a chance. They got a pretty good pitcher on the other side doing his thing. So it is what it is.”
Cuas gave up back-to-back singles including an RBI single by Straw that restored a two-run advantage for the Guardians.
Bubic finished the night having allowed three runs on six hits and one walk in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out four. He’s now lost five straight decisions, which matches the longest losing skid of his career within a single season.
“You look up there and it seems like he was in trouble, but he really only had that stress in the third,” Matheny said of Bubic. “He’s getting into some deeper counts, but at the end he’d only given up a few hits and a couple runs. A costly walk ended up hurting him. But overall, he did a great job getting us as deep into the game as he did and limiting the damage when he did get guys on.”
The Guardians added a run and extended their lead to 4-1 in the eighth on a two-out infield single hit by Owen Miller to Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.
This story was originally published September 6, 2022 at 10:01 PM.
