KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — With one swing of the bat, Alex Gordon wiped clean five innings of sketchy pitching with a grand slam to right field to tie the Kansas City Royals with the Cleveland Indians at 4. Gordon is the ninth Royals player to hit two grand slams in a season.
The Kansas City bullpen though would continue to hand out more free passes to the Cleveland Indians. Three of them in the seventh inning resulted in the go-ahead runs knocked in by Carlos Santana and Jason Giambi in what turned out to be a 6-5 defeat at Kauffman Stadium. The Indians wound up drawing eight walks in their fifth straight win.
Billy Butler hit an RBI double off Vinnie Pestano to get the Royals within 6-5 in the eighth. David Lough came to the plate with runners on the corners but grounded into an inning-ending double play, and the Indians held on for their fifth win in six games against Kansas City.
Chris Perez survived putting two aboard in the ninth for his eighth save of the season.
Royals right hander Jeremy Guthrie will start game 2 of the series against Tribe lefty Scott Kazmir. First pitch will be at 7:10pm, and pregame begins at 6:30 on SportsRadio 1350 KMAN from the Royals Radio Network.
