The card promised a scintillating pitching matchup between two of the premier, young power arms in the American League.
But only one side lived up to the lofty expectations as the Royals’ Yordano Ventura outclassed the Indians’ Trevor Bauer in Kansas City’s 4-1 win on Wednesday.
The Royals rode Ventura’s pitching — seven innings of one-run ball — and tied a franchise record for sacrifice flies in a game with four.
“He’s got a pretty special arm, and he can mix in offspeed that you have to respect that makes it really difficult,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “We got some hits, we weren’t really able to string anything together.”
Ventura overwhelmed the Indians, with his upper-90s heat and complementary offspeed pitches. He allowed six hits and one run while striking out three, and departed after the seventh despite throwing just 85 pitches. Of the 21 outs he recorded, 13 of them came on the ground.
“It’s tough to square up 98 [mph], you know, it’s not easy…You’ve got to be perfect to do it,” designated hitter Jason Giambi said.
Conversely, Bauer pitched adequately, but not nearly as effectively as Ventura. He lasted 5 1/3 innings and let three runs cross on his watch. The Royals rapped out seven hits against Bauer, who only managed one strikeout.
“It doesn’t matter how I felt, I didn’t do my job,” Bauer said. “I threw the ball well sometimes, and we scored enough to win and I didn’t do my job.”
The Indians dropped both games at Kauffman Stadium and have now lost six of their last seven at the K. Cleveland fell to 3-3 on the current 10-game road trip, with the loss sinking their record on the road to 12-22 this season, the second worst in the American League.
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