Cleveland Guardians Beat Royals in Low-Scoring Defensive Clash on Wednesday

It wasn’t the prettiest game.

But the Cleveland Guardians got the job done.

On Wednesday, May 6, the Guardians played in the third outing of a three-game set against the Kansas City Royals, pulling off a victory in “Guards Ball” fashion, 3-1. The outing saw just five hits from Cleveland’s bats, drawing five walks along the way as well.

With the Guardians down, 1-0, early, rookie outfielder Chase DeLauter stepped up and delivered the go-ahead single into left field. His knock brought in two runs, Austin Hedges and Petey Halpin, to take a 2-1 lead. His hit was the fifth-lowest exit velocity of any bat-to-ball connection that went into the field of play, coming in at 71.9 mph.

Hedges’ run being scored wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t swiped third base, helping put him in scoring position. It was just his 17th stolen base in his entire career.

“I mean, just tried to take a chance. The guy wasn’t really looking at me and shuffled into it. And I really assumed I wasn’t even going to get a throw,” said Hedges, who has had an excellent start to the season. “And then I think they moved third base farther away over the years, and I couldn’t believe I was still running at some point. But it worked out. And I was trying to make an aggressive play to try and get some runs on board.”

From there, the team tacked on another in the eighth inning to give themselves a bit of a cushion. José Ramírez got on base with a walk, stole second, took third and then came home on a groundout from David Fry.

“The thing with José is, even if he’s not getting hits, he’s getting on base. He takes his walks, and we saw that tonight,” Vogt said. “When he’s on the base paths, teams are aware, and they have to focus on him a little bit more and maybe take the focus off the batter at the plate. So José impacts the game wherever he is.”

Starting pitcher Joey Cantillo was able to go through 5.0 innings, giving up three hits, three walks and one earned run. He did strike out one batter, but Wednesday’s outing wasn’t a flashy one for Cantillo. He forced a lot of weak contact, allowing just four balls to be sent off the barrel at over 100 mph, with one being a hit.

He finished with 70 pitches thrown, 32 of which were four-seamers and 25 were his changeup, his go-to punchout pitch. He tossed his curveball nine times and slider four times. He didn’t send anyone down with the changeup against the Royals, but did make batters swing at it 14 times, six of which ended up being whiffs.

“I thought Joey [Cantillo] was outstanding,” Vogt said. “When he did get into a little bit of trouble, he was able to wiggle his way out. I thought he made pitches all night. I thought he was attacking the strike zone.”

It came as a surprise to see Cantillo be pulled after five with a low pitch count, but the Guardians have been monitoring him closely in recent outings. They haven’t allowed him to go past five innings since April 14 in an outing against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“It just felt like it was the right time,” Vogt said. “We took the lead there, and with their heart of the order coming up for a third time, Fest has been throwing the ball well. Our bullpen was rested today, and Joey did his job. I know right now runs have been hard to come by, so we knew it was going to be a close game.”

In a game like Wednesday’s, too, the Guardians’ coaching staff was trying to keep the arms as fresh as possible. After Cantillo, the bullpen was spotlighted by a combination of Matt Festa, Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith.

In the ninth, Smith put together one of his best showings of the 2026 campaign. He began by striking out Salvador Perez in just three pitches. From there, he allowed a seeing-eye single to Vinnie Pasquantino, before striking out Kyle Isbel and Isaac Collins, with both at-bats ending in ABS challenges.

With the win, the Guardians end a three-game losing streak and now have a bit of momentum heading into the final game of the series on Thursday, May 4. The two sides will clash at 2:10 p.m. EST.