Guardians rock Royals to clinch final series of the homestand

CLEVELAND — It was a hit parade in the rock n roll city Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field. Racking up season highs in runs and hits (16), the Guardians rolled to a series-clinching 10-2 victory over Central Division rival Kansas City to improve to 3-0-1 in their first four series of the season. "Our focus has always been to win series, and we've done that to start the year," said manager Stephen Vogt, whose team won four of its first six games at home. "If you do that all year long, it's gonna be a good year. It was a great homestand." The first-place Guardians (8-5) got a career-high four hits from Angel Martinez, who put the game away with his second career grand slam in the eighth inning. "It's fun for Angel," Vogt said. "He has been working tremendously hard. To have a day like that can really gather some momentum for him. That was a great swing on that grand slam. He's been doing a great job for us, great day for him." "I would say more than the 4-for-5, it's the feeling that what I've been working on, being consistent, that was the biggest thing of the day," Martinez said. The Guardians also got multi-hit games from Jose Ramirez, Juan Brito and Rhys Hoskins, who had a career-high three doubles, becoming Cleveland's first first baseman to accomplish the feat since Ben Broussard in 2005. Hoskins nearly hit his first home run on his third double in the fifth on a drive halfway up the wall in left. "Like I told a couple guys, 'Nobody ever got in trouble for hitting a double,'" Hoskins said. "So, double, homer, as long as I'm not out, I don't really care." Vogt has enjoyed slotting right-handed hitting Hoskins in the sixth spot in the order. "Rhys is a professional hitter, the patience, the lack of chase, the ability to think along with pitchers," he said. "He's ready to go and he swings at the right pitches. Just having him in the middle of the order, it really makes the lineup longer. He's getting on base, and a day like today, three doubles, that's pretty cool." Only one player in the starting lineup, David Fry, did not have at least a hit. The Guardians also got pitching, limiting the Royals to only five hits, starting with left-hander Joey Cantillo, who struck out nine over 5 2/3 innings and didn't allow a hit over the first three. Cantillo was able to maintain his rhythm despite a length injury delay for Royals starter Cole Ragans in the opening inning. "With the delay in the first, it could have spiraled on Joey that's a long half inning," Vogt said. "They really made him work in the middle innings, but to give us 5 2/3 on a day when we're pretty short in the bullpen, that was huge for Joey. He didn't have his best command today, but he only walked two, so it just shows that he made pitches when he had to." Cantillo credits bouncing back and forth between the bullpen and the rotation last year for helping him get off to a fast start this season. "I think just going through what I went through last year, just to have a better idea of what I know I can do out there and what is being asked of me," Cantillo said. "And I think that's just something that you gain with experience. I think there's a lot of things that I had to learn and a lot of things that happened that I think just made me better." Kansas City lost Ragans, who struck out the first two, five batters into the game to a left thumb contusion after he third hitter Ramirez lined a pitch back at him. Ragans threw some warm up pitches, including two over the catcher's head, but the Royals elected to keep him in the game. The left-hander walked the following batter, Fry, on four pitches before rookie phenom Chase DeLauter doubled off the wall in left-center to plate the first two runs of the game. "That was huge hit for us and obviously getting the three runs in the first to give Joey some cushion, it was a great day for our guys," Vogt said. Ragans was replaced and Hoskins scored DeLauter with his first double. "It just set us off on the right foot, and you could kind of tell the energy was there early," Hoskins said of the three-run first. "(It was a) great day today. More importantly, another series win for us and nothing better than a big league off day coming off a win." Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @CAwesomeheimer.