Josh Rojas drives in 4 as red-hot Royals rally past Guardians

Josh Rojas hit a two-run homer and tied his career high with four RBIs as the surging Kansas City Royals scored eight straight runs to beat the host Cleveland Guardians 8-3 on Saturday afternoon.

Rojas had a two-run single in the sixth inning and added a two-run homer in the eighth to lift Kansas City to its 12th win in 13 games. The Royals pulled within 6 1/2 games of Cleveland for the third American League wild-card spot.

Royals reliever Anthony Gose (1-0) retired all five batters he faced to collect his first victory since June 17, 2022, while pitching for the Guardians at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Cleveland reliever Colin Holderman (6-4) only recorded one out and was charged with four runs, three of them earned.

Angel Martinez had a two-run homer off starter Daniel Lynch IV for Cleveland, which sits 1 1/2 games ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles in the wild-card race. The Guardians have lost two straight games after winning their previous seven.

Kansas City clinched the series, marking just the fifth time it has done so in its last 27 trips to Cleveland. Lynch went 3 1/3 innings in his fifth start, giving up two runs on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

The Royals trailed 2-0 in the fifth when Isaac Collins had a two-run double off Guardians starter Foster Griffin. The National League All-Star gave up two runs on four hits over five innings, striking out four with one walk.

Salvador Perez triggered a four-run outburst in the sixth by driving in Bobby Witt Jr. with a double off Holderman. After Jac Caglianone scored on a Jose Ramirez error, Rojas greeted reliever Erik Sabrowski with a single that drove in Nick Loftin and John Rave to push Kansas City's advantage to 6-2.

Gose, Craig Kimbrel, John Schreiber and Nate Pearson combined to retire 14 straight hitters from the fourth to the eighth innings. Alex Lange surrendered a Martinez RBI single in the ninth.

--Field Level Media