CLEVELAND: The Indians had already taken first place in the American League Central away from the Chicago White Sox. Now, they’ve done it to the Kansas City Royals as well.
Josh Tomlin earned his eighth victory of the season and the Indians beat the Royals 7-1, putting the Indians a half-game ahead of the Royals for first place in the division.
Tomlin (8-1, 3.54 ERA) continued his case for an All-Star selection. He pitched 6⅓ innings, allowed just one run on seven hits and a walk and struck out four. He didn’t run into trouble until the seventh inning with the Indians ahead 5-0. Kendrys Morales doubled, Paulo Orlando singled and Reymond Fuentes singled home the Royals’ only run of the night.
From there, reliever Jeff Manship extinguished the only dangerous scoring threat the Royals (30-25) had Saturday night, getting Alcides Escobar to ground out and Whit Merrifield to line out to Francisco Lindor.
Most of Tomlin’s outing came with a 1-0 lead thanks to Chris Gimenez’s sacrifice fly in the second inning, though the Indians (30-24) broke it open in the sixth and won for the third consecutive time against the Royals with the final game of the series on Sunday.
Facing Royals starting pitcher Ian Kennedy (4-4, 3.44 ERA), who shut the Indians down earlier in the year, Mike Napoli turned on a knuckle-curve and belted a solo home run to left field with one out in the sixth. It was his team-leading 13th home run of the season, which puts him on pace for 39 for the year. Lonnie Chisenhall doubled two batters and later and just beat Orlando’s throw home on a single to right field by Rajai Davis.
Rookie Tyler Naquin, who hit the first home run of his career Friday night, made it back-to-back nights with a two-run home run to center field to extend the Indians’ edge to 5-0.
Lindor tacked on two more in the seventh with a two-run shot to the Home Run Porch off reliever Scott Alexander, his fifth of the year. He also had previously twice doubled in the game, making him the first Indians hitter this season with three extra-base hits in a game.
Lindor then played a role in arguably the best defensive play for the Indians this season. With Morales at the plate and the Indians in a shift to the right side, Lindor made a diving play to his right to field a hard grounder. Without time to get up, he flipped it to Jose Ramirez, who fired to first to complete the out.
The Indians are now 4-0 in June, 5-1 against the Royals this season and 17-7 within the AL Central division. And, for the second time this season, they have sole possession of first place.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ