Kansas City Royals Power Past Cleveland Indians 5-3

Jason Vargas has struggled for much of the year for the Kansas City Royals. However, when pitted against the Cleveland Indians, Vargas has looked like the pitcher the Royals had last season. That excellent track record against the Indians continued tonight, as the Royals took a 5-3 victory.

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However, things did not look promising for Vargas and the Royals in the first. With one out, Carlos Santana walked, and Michael Brantley followed with a long home run to right, giving the Indians a quick 2-0 lead. Considering how Vargas has looked for most of this season, it would be fair to have expected the wheels to come off.

Instead, Vargas settled in from that point. The Royals erased that mistake in the bottom of the inning. After a base hit and a ground out, Kendrys Morales was hit by a pitch, as the Royals seemingly cannot go more than a game or two without getting plunked. This time, Eric Hosmer got sweet revenge on Indians starter Danny Salazar, belting his 2-0 offering deep to left center for a three run shot.

The Royals tacked on another run in the fifth. Jarrod Dyson did his best Paulo Orlando impression, tripling to right to lead off the inning. After a groundout, Alex Gordon singled to right to plate Dyson and give the Royals a 4-2 lead.

That would prove to be more than enough for Jason Vargas. In what may have been his best start of the season, Vargas allowed two runs on two hits and two walks over six innings while striking out five. Hopefully, this outing can be a springboard for the rest of the season.

Cleveland got a run back in the top of the eighth against Kelvin Herrera. Lonnie Chisenhall greeted the Kansas City Royals setup man by slugging his first pitch deep into the night sky for a home run, cutting the lead to one. However, the Royals got that run right back, as Alex Gordon drew a leadoff walk, then scored on Hosmer’s two out triple.

That would prove to be the final run of the game, as the Kansas City Royals took a 5-3 victory over the Indians. Hosmer had an excellent day at the plate, going 2-4 with a home run, a triple and four RBI.

Alex Gordon was 2-3 with a walk, an RBI and two runs cored in the victory.

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