Cleveland 6, Kansas City 1
When: 7:10 PM ET, Friday, June 3, 2016
Where: Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio
Temperature:
73°
Umpires:
Home -
Carlos Torres, 1B -
Sam Holbrook, 2B -
Gerry Davis, 3B -
Rob Drake
Attendance:
24753
By The Sports Xchange
CLEVELAND -- For eight dominating innings, it was the Danny Salazar show.
"His 112th pitch was 98 mph. He was 96 to 98 with an incredible splitter. That's pretty darn good stuff," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said.
Salazar pitched eight innings, allowing one run and three hits, and rookie Tyler Naquin hit his first major league home run as the Cleveland Indians beat the Royals 6-1 on Friday night at Progressive Field.
Yan Gomes also homered for the second-place Indians, who have won the first two games of the four-game series to move within 1/2 game of the first-place Royals in the AL Central.
Salazar (6-3) gave up one run and three hits and had nine strikeouts and five walks.
"Even though he had some walks, his stuff was so good," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "He was throwing 97 to 98 with great off-speed stuff to go with it. That's a lot of good weapons."
With the Indians leading 4-1, the left-handed hitting Naquin, the Indians' first-round pick in the 2012 June draft, hit a 3-1 pitch from Royals starter Edinson Volquez (5-5) over the left-field wall for his first major league home run.
"That ball got out in a hurry. Good for him," Francona said.
Naquin said, "That was awesome. My first major league home run. There are no words to describe it. It was a pretty special feeling touching home plate."
Naquin's homer gave the Indians a 5-1 lead and that was plenty for Salazar, who held the Royals in check for most of the night.
Volquez was removed from the game later in the seventh inning. In 6 1/3 innings, he gave up five runs and seven hits with five strikeouts and four walks.
Salazar gave up a solo home run to Drew Butera in the third inning, then held Kansas City scoreless for his last five innings.
The only other Royals hits besides Butera's home run were a single by Alcides Escobar in the sixth, Escobar’s 1,000th career hit, and a single by Cheslor Cuthbert in the seventh.
"On the home run (by Butera), I was trying to throw a slider, but I put it right there for him instead of down in the zone. That made me mad," Salazar said.
The Indians scored their final run in the eighth when Jose Ramirez doubled off Chien-Ming Wang, stole third and scored on a throwing error by Butera.
Cleveland scored first on a solo home run by Yan Gomes with two outs in the second for a 1-0 lead.
The Royals got that run back in the top of the third on Butera's second home run of the season. He has homered in each of the first two games of the series.
In nine career starts against Cleveland, Volquez is 2-6 with an 8.12 ERA that was fattened by a three-run, four-hit Indians third inning that was helped along by two wild pitches.
Volquez retired the first batter of the inning, but the Indians then strung together four consecutive hits. Jason Kipnis started it by driving a double into the gap in left-center field. Kipnis went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single to center by Francisco Lindor, giving the Indians a 2-1 lead.
Mike Napoli followed with a double off the wall in left field, scoring Lindor to make it 3-1. Napoli advanced to third on a single by Jose Ramirez, and Napoli scored on Volquez's second wild pitch of the inning, extending the Indians' lead to 4-1.
"Eddie struggled with his command, but I thought both of the home run balls were pretty good pitches," Yost said. "After that third inning, he was pretty darn good."
NOTES: The Indians have played 53 games, which means OF Abraham Almonte has 27 more games left in his 80-game suspension for a positive test in spring training for performance-enhancing drugs. ... Indians 1B Mike Napoli, who ranks in the top 10 in the American League in home runs (12) and RBIs (39), has 29 RBIs at Progressive Field, the third-most home RBIs in the majors behind Boston's Mookie Betts and David Ortiz (30 each). ... Royals C Salvador Perez, who hasn't played since suffering a quad contusion on May 28, will likely start a game during the weekend series in Cleveland, manager Ned Yost said. ... Royals relievers entered Friday's game having not allowed a home run in their last 99 innings dating to May 4 when Washington's Bryce Harper homered off RHP Dillon Gee.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
| Kansas City |
|
Cleveland |
|
Edinson Volquez |
Player |
Danny Salazar
|
|
Loss |
W/L |
Win |
|
6.1 |
IP |
8.0 |
|
5 |
Strikeouts |
9 |
|
7 |
Hits |
3 |
|
7.11 |
ERA |
1.12 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| Kansas City
|
3 |
1 |
6 |
.107 |
9 |
9 |
1 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
| Cleveland
|
8 |
2 |
17 |
.267 |
12 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
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