Royals move into first-place tie atop AL Central with third win over Guardians in two days

The AL Central is officially up for grabs. Tuesday night at Progressive Field, the Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Guardians for the third time in two days (KC 6, CLE 1), giving the clubs identical 75-58 records. They are tied atop the AL Central with 29 games to play. The Royals swept Monday’s doubleheader and are 10-3 in their last 13 games. The Guardians have lost eight of 11.

On June 25, the Guardians were 51-26 and had the best record in baseball, and they were nine games up in the division. The Royals were 43-38 and 10 games back on that date. Since then, Kansas City has the American League’s best record at 32-20 while Cleveland has gone 24-32. The Royals have erased a 10-game deficit in roughly two months.

For Cleveland, the collapse can be blamed almost entirely on their offense. The offense started the season very well, mostly because they were hitting home runs without striking out excessively. The last two months have been a real slog, however.

The home runs are still there. The Guardians just aren’t doing anything else. Cleveland’s batting average and on-base percentage have slipped because the singles, the doubles, and the walks have dried up. The Royals have outscored them 19-8 in the first three games of this four-game series. Hard to win when you score only eight runs in three games.

The trio of Steven Kwan, Josh Naylor and José Ramírez are hitting a combined .229/.323/.416 in August after hitting .281/.342/.500 the first four months of the season. If those three don’t hit, then the jig is up. The Guardians have little chance to win the AL Central, let alone make a deep postseason run without them performing. Kwan, Naylor and Ramirez must snap out of this August funk.

As for the Royals, they received another home run from trade deadline pickup Paul DeJong, his fifth in 19 games with Kansas City. Five relievers — Carlos Hernández, James McArthur, John Schreiber, Sam Long, Chris Stratton — held the Guardians to one run in 7 2/3 innings after starter Michael Lorenzen exited with a left hamstring strain in the second inning. He slipped covering first base.

The Guardians had been in sole possession of first place since April 14, 15 games into the season. The Royals have spent one day — April 13 — in sole possession of first place this year. The two teams now have 29 games to sort out the division. They’ll finish this series on Wednesday, then play three enormous games in Kansas City next week.

It should be noted Tuesday’s win improved the Royals to 7-2 against the Guardians. They’ve clinched the season series and thus own the tiebreaker. Kansas City only needs to finish with the same record as Cleveland to win the AL Central. The Guardians have to finish ahead of the Royals to win the division. Functionally, the Royals are a game up right now.

The Guardians and Royals will wrap up this four-game series Wednesday afternoon. Michael Wacha (11-6, 3.32 ERA) and Tanner Bibee (10-6, 3.46 ERA) are the scheduled starting pitchers.