KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio drove in four runs and the Cleveland Guardians beat Kansas City 7-1 Tuesday night, extending the Royals’ losing streak to a season-high seven.
Kansas City was held to two runs or fewer for the fifth straight game and managed just four hits. The Royals’ losing streak is its longest since a 10-game skid from June 5-16 last year.
Since tying Cleveland for the AL Central lead on Aug. 27, the Royals (76-65) have dropped 5 1/2 games behind the Guardians (80-59), who have won five of six. Kansas City maintained a 4 1/2-game lead for the final AL wild card.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro missed his second game after the death of his mother Dorann Stagnitta. Bench coach Paul Hoover served as acting manager.
Cleveland first baseman Josh Naylor left for a pinch runner after singling in the eighth inning because of lower back tightness.
Steven Kwan had a two-run single for the Guardians and Kyle Manzardo had three hits.
Tanner Bibee (11-6) allowed one run and two hits in six innings — just the 39th time a Cleveland starter pitched six or more innings.
“I thought he was great, just attacking, throwing a lot of strikes," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. "Especially after the third, he settled in and threw a ton of strikes, kept them off balance.”
Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. had his big league-best 57th multihit game of the season.
Brady Singer (9-10) allowed two runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Rocchio’s sacrifice fly in the second and Andrés Giménez’s bloop RBI single in the fifth built a 2-0 lead.
Kansas City loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth, but Tommy Pham failed to tag up at third on Salvador Perez’s line drive to left. Paul DeJong followed with a sacrifice fly and Bibee struck out MJ Melendez.
“He can make pitches in big-time moments,” Vogt said. “Tanner is a big-time pitcher. He wants those moments, and for him to be able to slow down and execute in that situation was huge.”
Bibee is 7-3 with a 2.71 ERA in 14 road starts, and the Guardians are 20-7 in his outings this year.
“I was just trying to execute the next pitch,” Bibee said of the sixth inning. “When I get into a lot of trouble, I feel like it’s trying to do way too much. I think one goal for me today was just to execute one pitch at a time.”
Rocchio hit his seventh home run of the season in the bottom of the sixth, a two-run drive against Sam Long that was just inside the left-field foul pole. The 23-year-old rookie homered after failing on a pair of bunt attempts.
“When I missed the first two bunts, I’m trying to stay calm and be patient to move the runner to second base. But I put a good swing on it," Roochio said. “Awesome, because I know if I don’t do anything, maybe he’s mad at me” in a reference to Vogt.
“It’s really easy when you don’t do your job or don’t get the job done to get down on yourself and just give away and at-bat, but he got pitch up and he crushed it,” Vogt said.
Rocchio added a bases-loaded walk in the eighth against James McArthur for a career-best four RBIs.
Hoover said the Royals are pressing.
“What you saw in the sixth is probably what we need to do hopefully from inning one, just stringing a couple at-bats together, passing the baton and the next guy up hopefully can do the job,” Hoover said. “We want to be successful, but sometimes we want it so bad that we try to do a little too much.”
