Guardians sleepwalk through 4-2 loss to Royals

After racking up a combined 22 runs against the Yankees on Saturday and Sunday, the Cleveland Guardians fell back asleep Monday, dropping both games of a doubleheader to the lowly Kansas City Royals to snap an 11-game winning streak against their division rival. All Cleveland could muster was three hits and four walks in a 4-2 loss to Kansas City in the night cap.

The Guardians opted to pitch a bullpen game and it went about as well as you’d expect with Nick Wittgren getting the starting nod. Wittgren allowed a one-out double before walking the next three batters he faced, forcing in a run to give the Royals an early 1-0 lead. Hunter Dozier then hit a sac fly to right field to extend their lead to 2-0 and end Wittgren’s night after less than an inning.

Kansas City struck again in the fourth inning against Anthony Gose, who was making his first big league appearance since May 15, 2016. He was an outfielder then but stepped to the mound Monday night as a relief pitcher, topping out at 100.8 mph. His relief appearance was a remarkable personal achievement but outing itself didn’t go so well, as he walked Dozier, allowed a one-out double to Hanser Alberto, and then gave up an RBI groundout to Sebastian Rivero.

Bryan Shaw surrendered the Royals’ fourth and final run in the sixth inning, giving up a double to Kyle Isbel and then an RBI single to Alberto to make it a 4-1 deficit.

The Guardians’ lone runs came courtesy of solo shots by Andres Gimenez and Bobby Bradley.