Cleveland Indians: Bullpen falters, Indians drop series opener to Royals

The Cleveland Indians’ suffered a late-inning collapse Monday as they dropped their series opener in Kansas City against the Royals.

The Cleveland Indians failed to pickup a mound with their ace Shane Bieber on the mound as their bullpen faltered in a 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals. 

For much of the night, Bieber and Kansas City right-hander Brad Keller matched each other pitched for pitch as both pitchers kept their opponent scoreless through six innings. Keller struck out four Indians in that span while Bieber punched out nine Royals.

In the top of the seventh, the Indians finally broke through off Keller as Franmil Reyes delivered an RBI double to put Cleveland on top 1-0 and knock the Royals ace out of the game after 6.1 innings of work.

Bieber’s night also came to an end after six innings as he finished the night with just one hit allowed, four walks, nine strikeouts and no earned runs lowering his season ERA to an incredible 1.20.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Royals took advantage of Bieber’s short outing as they rallied off Indians’ set-up man James Karinchak. Maikel Franco delivered an RBI single to tie the game and later in the inning, Bubba Sterling singled off Adam Cimber to put Kansas City on top 2-1.

Cleveland would not be able to rally back in the top of the ninth as former all-star Greg Holland notched the save to clinch a 2-1 Royals win.

With the loss, Cleveland has now lost two straight and stand half a game behind the White Sox for first place in the AL Central.

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On Deck: Zach Plesac will make his long-awaited return to the Indians rotation Tuesday after spending several weeks at the teams’ alternate site as punishment for breaking the team’s and MLB’s COVID-19 protocols by going out with friends in Chicago. In three starts before getting demoted, the right-hander went 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA. He’ll face off with former all-star Matt Harvey, who is making his third start since signing with Kansas City earlier this month. So far, the former Mets ace has struggled as he has posted a sky-high 11.12 ERA in two starts. First pitch from Kansas City is set for 8:05 p.m. EST.