Tommy Pham hit his first home run for Kansas City, a three-run shot that broke the tie during a four-run fourth inning. This helped the Royals end a tough seven-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday night.
Seth Lugo (15-8) gave up one run and five hits over seven innings. He is now just one win behind Detroit’s Tarik Skubal and Atlanta’s Chris Sale, who are leading the majors in wins. Lugo is 11-1 with a 1.40 ERA in 15 starts when he has four days of rest.
Kansas City (76-65) closed in on Minnesota (75-64) for the second AL wild card spot. Both teams are 4 1/2 games behind Cleveland (80-60), which is leading the AL Central.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro came back after missing two games due to his mother’s passing.
“Really happy for those guys,” Quatraro said. “Nobody wants to lose, and when you string a whole week of games together where you don’t win any of them, it wears on you, mentally, physically. It makes it tougher to believe in yourself, so however it had to happen … it’s good to get a win.”
During the seven-game losing streak, the Royals had scored three runs or fewer in six consecutive games, their longest such stretch since August 15-21, 2022. They had also scored two runs or fewer in five straight games, their longest span since June 7-13, 2018.
Pham, who joined the Royals from St. Louis on Saturday, hit the go-ahead home run off Ben Lively (11-9), who gave up seven hits in four innings. The homer, which landed deep in the left-field seats, was Pham’s eighth of the season and marked his first RBIs with the Royals.
“It just seems like we’ve had some chances and we just couldn’t come through with the big hit until tonight,” Pham said. “It felt very good because I’ve been having a hard time barreling up balls to the pull side, and today it was something I worked on, and it’s even better to see it translate into the game.”
