Kansas City Royals pitcher Kris Bubic finished a rocky year with a rock-solid start in his final outing of the season, against the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday, and the Royals’ bats did their part to support their young left-hander.
Bubic tossed five scoreless innings and recorded a season-high eight strikeouts in a 7-1 win over the Guardians in front of an announced crowd of 26,982 in the second game of the season-ending six-game series at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Royals veteran catcher Salvador Perez went 4 for 4 with two RBIs and registered his first four-hit game of the season, which included his 23rd home run of the season for the Royals (64-94).
The home run, Perez’s fourth hit of the night, moved him past former teammate Billy Butler for eighth place among the franchise’s all-time hits leaders with 1,274 hits.
Royals rookie outfielder Drew Waters, a switch-hitter acquired from the Atlanta Braves prior to this summer’s MLB draft, went 2 for 4 with two runs scored and hit his second home run in as many games.
Waters smashed a home run batting left-handed on Friday night, and he crushed a solo blast 380 feet while batting right-handed on Saturday.
Royals rookie outfielder/catcher MJ Melendez went 2 for 4 with two doubles, a walk, an RBI and two runs scored out of the leadoff spot in the batting order, while outfielder Kyle Isbel went 1 for 3 with a walk, a double and two RBIs.
Royals rookie infielder Bobby Witt Jr. (1 for 4, stolen base) extended his hitting streak to 13 consecutive games.
Bubic held the Guardians (89-69) to five hits and just one walk over five innings.
Royals pitchers logged 13 strikeouts in the game.
Bubic (3-13) struggled in his two previous starts this season against the Guardians. He’d allowed eight runs on nine hits and three walks in seven innings combined in those two starts.
Bubic’s first start of the season came against the Guardians on April 10, when he gave up five earned runs without completing the first inning.
But for the second consecutive game, the Royals grabbed an early lead.
This time, the first run came courtesy of Perez’s RBI single in the third inning. Melendez hit a wind-aided double, then advanced to third on a fly out by Witt and scored on Perez’s single.
They added three more runs in the fourth on Isbel’s two-run, two-out double. Hunter Dozier reached on an error and Waters doubled to put two men in scoring position for Isbel.
Melendez then followed with an RBI double, his second double of the game, as the Royals took a 4-0 advantage and chased Guardians starting pitcher Zach Plesac after 3 2/3 innings. Three of the runs were unearned.
Plesac was making his first start since returning from the IL with a broken hand.
The Royals sent nine batters to the plate in the third, and they collected all four of their hits (three doubles) with two outs in the inning.
The lead expanded to five runs on Waters’ home run to start the sixth inning.
The Guardians scored a sixth-inning run against reliever Taylor Clarke, but the Royals restored the five-run lead with Perez’s solo homer at the start of the seventh.
Melendez scored the Royals’ final run on a wild pitch in the eighth.
Royals pitchers Amir Garrett (1/3 inning), Carlos Hernández (one inning), Dylan Coleman (one inning) and Anthony Misiewicz (one inning) each had scoreless outings.
