Cleveland Baseball Insider

Guardians Fall To Royals In Ninth Inning, Despite Strong Performance From Aaron Civale

The Royals walk-off the Guardians in the series opener.

Tommy Wild

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The Guardians have had their share of walk-offs this season, but it's never fun to be on the opposing side of them. The Royals ended up walking off the Guardians in the ninth inning and getting the 4-3 win in the series opener. 

Listen to what Francona had to say following the loss:

A big positive from tonight's game was the starting pitching. Aaron Civale looked great in his last outing against the Yankees and continues to look strong since coming off the injured list. Tonight, he pitched seven innings, only allowed one run, had six strikeouts and didn't give up any walks. 

The highlight from tonight was easily Nolan Jones getting his first Major League hit! It seems like fans have been waiting forever to see Jones get the call-up, and to see him make an impact so early during his first few at-bats was fantastic!

In the second inning, he hit an RBI double that scored Owen Miller to give the Guardians an early lead. Jones would go on to 2-3 in his debut, not bad at all! 

One of my favorite sites in all of sports is seeing family and friends react to a player's first Big League hit, and it was awesome to see the Jones family get pumped for Nolan! 

As a team, the Guardians' offense struggled to get anything going outside of the second inning. That was until the seventh inning when Jose Ramirez hit a lead-off double which Franmil Reyes followed with a two-run opposite-field home run! 

That's now his fourth home run in the month of July and fourth in the last eight games. Oh, it's good to have Franmil back! 

Civale did a great job shutting down the Royals' lineup and put the Guardians in a fantastic position to get the win. However, Eli Morgan came into the game in relief in the eighth inning only to have Whitt Merrifield hit a two-run home run and tie the game at three apiece. 

Even though the Guardians loaded up the bases in the top of the ninth inning, they couldn't get anyone around to take the lead. This allowed the Royals to come up in the ninth inning and eventually get the win on a walk-off.

The Guardians will try to tie up the series tomorrow afternoon at 4:10 pm. Triston McKenzie will take that mound as he looks to build off his impressive start the last time out.

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Tommy Wild
TOMMY WILD

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