Guardians squander early opportunity, lose 4-1 to Royals

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Guardians squandered a bases-loaded opportunity and an opportunity to win a series Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. Noah Cameron escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first before tossing five innings of three-hit ball, Maikel Garcia homered for the second time in three games, and the Royals beat Cleveland 4-1 Sunday. One series loss isn't going to get us down," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. "We've been playing really good baseball; we played good baseball over this weekend. They're a really good team over there, too. So we're going to get back to work tomorrow. "This is a tough stretch, 13 in a row coming out of the break and a quick trip to Kansas City and back home, but we'll be ready to go tomorrow." Joey Cantillo (2-1) lasted only four innings for Cleveland on a hot, humid day. He allowed three runs and three hits and four walks while striking out four in his fifth start since joining the Guardians' rotation. Cantillo had twice faced Kansas City in relief this season, retiring all six he faced and striking out four of them. Garcia finished with two RBIs, and Vinnie Pasquantino and Luke Maile also drove in runs, while the Kansas City bullpen allowed only Gabriel Arias' homer amid four hits over the final four innings. Carlos Estévez worked around a leadoff double in the ninth for his 27th save. Cameron (5-4) was stingy after the first, when Steven Kwan, Angel Martínez and José Ramírez began the game by loading the bases with nobody out. Cameron rebounded to retire David Fry, Carlos Santana and Arias, then allowed only two baserunners in the next four innings. He also struck out six in another dominant performance. "It was a tough way to start," Vogt said. "We got the bases loaded, nobody out, and we weren't able to push a run across. You just kind of felt like it's hard to get stuff going after that. We let them off the hook, and it happens, it's frustrating. And on the flip side, we didn't shut them down right away in the first. So they kind of got all the momentum." The 26-year-old left-hander from nearby St. Joseph, Missouri, lowered his ERA to 2.44 and has not lost a game since June 27. The Guardians are eight games behind the Tigers in the AL Central and three games back in the AL wild card. "Going the same way we've been going," Fry said. "Just show up everyday prepared to win a game and just move on to the next day regardless of results. … It's too far out to kind of be looking at that, just keep our head down and try to win every game we can." Key moment The fruitless first proved to be pivotal for Cleveland, when Fry flied out to right, Santana struck out and Arias grounded out to end the inning. Kansas City proceeded to coax across two runs in the bottom half and never trailed. Key stat The Royals won despite going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Up next The Guardians return home to face Colorado on Monday night with RHP Slade Cecconi (5-4, 3.76 ERA) starting the opener. The Royals welcome the Braves on Monday night with LHP Rich Hill (0-1, 1.80) on the mound first for the three-game series.