Six walks, one ninth inning, total chaos
Nate Pearson opened the ninth by walking the bases loaded. He never got out of it. Cleveland drew six walks in the frame, Jose Ramirez forced one home to break a 7-7 tie, and by the time Nolan Hoffman came in and walked two more batters, the Guardians had turned a coin-flip game into a 12-9 breeze at Kauffman Stadium.
Angel Martinez put the finishing touches on it, ripping a two-run double to make it 12-7 before the Royals added a late run that meant nothing. He finished with four RBIs, two of them in that ninth-inning explosion that turned a tight, error-filled slog into a laugher.
Cleveland piled up 13 walks off Kansas City pitching on the night, a number that tells you more about how this one was won than any of the home runs did.
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Cleveland survives its own mess to stay hot
The Guardians did not make this easy on themselves. Starter Gavin Williams allowed four runs, five hits and four walks in just 3 1/3 innings, and third baseman Maikel Garcia’s error opened the door for an unearned run in the first. Cleveland led 2-1 early, lost it, tied it, lost the lead again, and kept coming back anyway.
Austin Hedges answered a Royals rally with a solo home run. David Fry drove in two more with a fifth-inning shot. Ramirez, who reached in the first on that fielding error, added a sacrifice fly to put Cleveland back ahead in the fourth. None of it was clean, but none of it mattered once the ninth arrived.
The win was Cleveland’s eighth in nine games, a stretch that has the Guardians (84-76) clinching a postseason berth and now sitting a game clear of the Chicago White Sox (83-77) at the top of the AL Central. Chicago beat Colorado 6-1 on the same night and could not close the gap.
Kansas City’s bullpen couldn’t hold the line
Kansas City had chances to bury this one. Carter Jensen hit two separate two-run home runs, including one off Hunter Gaddis in the eighth that put the Royals up 7-5. Jac Caglianone drove in two runs on three hits, and Salvador Perez added a two-run homer of his own in the ninth, long after the damage was done.
Starter Noah Cameron allowed seven runs, six earned, over five innings, and the bullpen never settled things down behind him. Kansas City (68-92) is now 6-17 in its last 23 games, a stretch that has turned what looked like a competitive summer into a lost September.
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