Cleveland Indians: McKenzie, Naquin lead Tribe to series win over Royals

An outstanding pitching performance from Triston McKenzie and a pair of home runs off the bat of Tyler Naquin propelled the Cleveland Indians to a series-clinching win over the Royals.

The Cleveland Indians clinched a series victory over the Kansas City Royals Wednesday with a 5-0 win behind an outstanding pitching performance from rookie Triston McKenzie.

After hitting four home runs Tuesday, the Indians continued to use the long ball early in Wednesday’s ball-game as in the top of the second, Tyler Naquin hit a two-run shot off of Royals starter Jakob Junis to give Cleveland an early 2-0 lead.

Meanwhile, McKenzie kept the Royals offense at bay as he tossed six shutout innings and struck out six Royals in just his third big league start. The rookie is now 2-0 with an impressive 1.69 ERA

In the top of the ninth, the Indians added insurance as Naquin delivered a three-run home run for his second long ball of the game and to put Cleveland in-front 5-0.

Five runs would more than enough Cleveland bullpen needed to hold the lead as Phil Maton, Nick Wittgren and Brad Hand combined to toss three scoreless innings and lockdown the win.

With the win, the Indians improved to 23-14 on the season and now lead the AL Central by half a game over the Chicago White Sox and two games over the Minnesota Twins. With the loss, Kansas City is now 14-23 on the season as they remain in the basement of the division.

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On Deck: The Indians will have Thursday off as they head home to Cleveland to prepare for a three-game weekend series with the Milwaukee Brewers. Milwaukee has reached the postseason each of the last two seasons, but have struggled in 2020 as they’re currently just .. Carlos Carrasco is in line to start Friday’s series opener for Cleveland with first pitch from Progressive Field scheduled for 7:10 p.m. EST.