*Photo from AP News*
Making history is always a pretty cool accomplishment. Salvador Perez homered, Edward Olivares drove in two runs, and the Kansas City Royals defeated the Cleveland Guardians with a 5-3 victory on Monday night in Cleveland.
The Royals opened the series against a division foe on the right note, snapping a 5 game losing streak in the process. However, the main accomplishment comes with Perez, who became the 10th player in MLB history to hit 200 home runs as a catcher. The other 40 of his career came at DH and first base.
It was Olivares who got the scoring started for the Royals. With Kyle Isbel and Matt Duffy on base in the second inning, Olivares hit a double that scored them both, giving the Royals a 2-0 lead early on. It stayed that way until the 6th inning, when Perez hit the historical home run, a two run shot to make it a 4-0 game.
After Perez's homer in the top of the 6th, Josh Bell got the Guardians on the board in the bottom, hitting an RBI single to make it 4-1. In the top of the 7th, Maikel Garcia hit a solo home run to give the Royals a 5-1 lead. In the bottom of the 7th, Myles Straw scored Will Brennan and David Fry with a two run single to make it a 5-3 score, which went final.
On the mound for the Royals was Ryan Yarbrough, who allowed one run on 6 hits, walking no one and striking out one hitter in 6 innings. Jose Cuas allowed two runs in one inning before Carlos Hernandez pitched a scoreless 8th and Scott Barlow got the save in the 9th, his 12th of the season.
Yarbrough said of his approach on the mound that "They do swing a lot, they’re aggressive, but at the same time, they don’t strike out much. So it’s just a matter of pitching to my game, knowing that I get a lot of weak contact and seeing how they react to certain pitches and how they’re swinging the bat. It tells you a lot, and you just go from there."
Logan Allen started and allowed 5 runs on 7 hits, striking out 5 hitters while walking none in 7 innings pitched, getting tagged with the loss. Daniel Norris then came out of the bullpen and pitched two scoreless innings.
Allen said after the game that "I was trying to go up against Perez, but pulled it down and he put a good swing on it. That’s why he is as good as he is. We were really efficient today, but they took advantage of some of those opportunities and jumped on them."
Up next, the series continues on Tuesday night. The Royals give the start to Zack Greinke as they go for the series win, while the Guardians look to tie the series with Aaron Civale getting the start.
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