Cantillo, Smith collaborate in Guardians shutout of Royals

CLEVELAND — Joey Cantillo allowed four hits in a career-best eight-plus innings, José Ramírez homered, doubled and scored twice, and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Kansas City Royals 2-0 on Tuesday night for their fifth straight victory.

Cantillo (5-3), a Kailua High graduate, struck out five and didn’t issue a walk. Cade Smith, a University of Hawaii alumnus, pitched a scoreless ninth for his 12th save for the Guardians, who entered play 2 1/2 games behind Seattle for the final wild-card spot.

The two combined on a five-hitter.

Cantillo credited catcher Austin Hedges for helping him go deep into the game.

“It means everything,” Cantillo said on the Guardians postgame show. “We basically just threw everything he put down and kept it really simple. I trust this guy with everything, so we keep going.”

Cantillo dropped his earned-run average to 3.36.

Of his last two starts including a win at Boston on Sept. 3, Cantillo said, “Just getting ahead of guys and thinking, ‘hey, I don’t need to be perfect, I don’t need to make the perfect pitch. Just be aggressive, and challenge guys every pitch.’ 

Said Hedges of Cantillo, “Everybody knows how good he is. The whole league knows. When he goes out there and does that, he reminds the league of exactly how good he is.”

After giving up three earned runs in an appearance against Boston on Sept. 2, Smith (3.20 ERA) has yielded no runs in his last four outings. 

Ramírez, who had three hits, hit a solo homer off Royals starter Noah Cameron (7-6) with two outs in the first. David Fry hit the second of back-to-back to doubles to drive in Ramírez in the fourth.

Cameron, a 26-year-old rookie, gave up two runs on six hits with eight strikeouts in seven innings.

The Guardians, who have won six of seven, beat the Royals 10-2 in the series opener Monday.

Cleveland (74-70) is two games behind Seattle in the AL Wild Card race.