While lurking on the outside of the AL Wild Card picture still, the Cleveland Indians could not afford Sundayâs 3-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
The Indians (77-77) fell back to even and, with all teams above them in the race for the second Wild Card spot victorious, Cleveland lost a full game in the standings. They did manage to complete a series win over the Royals and ended the season with a 10-9 record against the AL Central Division champions.
Kansas City got two of their three runs in the fourth off of Indians starter Danny Salazar. Lorenzo Cain reached on an infield single and scored on a double by Eric Hosmer. After a single from Salvador Perez, Mike Moustakas grounded home Hosmer for the 2-0 lead. They would add another on an Alex Gordon RBI-single off of Ryan Webb in the seventh.
KC starter Chris Young, who was mourning the loss of his father the day before, threw five no-hit innings before exiting the game. The Indians would get a bunt single from Francisco Lindor to lead off the seventh and after a walk to Michael Brantley and a fly out, runners were on the corners with one out. Lonnie Chisenhall lined back to reliever Ryan Madson, who threw to first to try to double off Brantley. His throw was bad and a phantom tag from Hosmer was placed; meanwhile Lindor broke for home and slid in safely. Perez threw to third, believing that Lindor left without tagging up. The third base umpire ruled otherwise. Royals manager Ned Yost came out to challenge the tag from Hosmer, but video review showed he tagged with an empty glove with the ball in hand. Lindor, however, did leave the bag early and after video reviews on the scoreboard and a reconvening of the umpires, the crew chief overturned the initial appeal at third and ruled Lindor out.
The Indians lone other hit was a one-out double by Jason Kipnis in the ninth off of new Royals closer Wade Davis.
W: C. Young (11-6)
L: D. Salazar (13-10)
S: W. Davis (14)
HR: none
Photo: Ed Zurga/Getty Images
