Three Observations From Guardians Win Over Royals, 7-5

The Cleveland Guardians beat the Kansas City Royals in their final game of their four-game series.

Aug 28, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians pinch runner Lane Thomas (8) steals second as Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) misses the throw during the eighth inning at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports / Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Finally, the Cleveland Guardians get back in the win column. They salvaged one game from their four-game series with the Kansas City Royals with a 7-5 victory on Wednesday afternoon.

Here are three observations and takeaways from the Guardians' latest win.

Tanner Bibee

Tanner Bibee threw plenty of strikes on Wednesday afternoon, but the Royals took advantage of that and made a ton of contact against him. Bibee ended up giving up five earned runs on eight hits, including three solo home runs, with two of those coming in the first inning.

On the flip side, he also struck out six batters with his and had 11 swings and misses.

Bibee obvisouly didn't have his best stuff on Wednesday. However, credit has to be given for how he fought back in the game and the offense came through late in the game for Cleveland to get the victory.

Aug 28, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee (28) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports / Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Guards Baseball Returns

The offense started off slow, as it had for the first games of the series, while the Royals climbed to a three-run lead by the seventh inning.

The inning started with a solo home run by Bo Naylor, which set the stage for Cleveland to take the lead. Steven Kwan and Andres Gimenez followed up Bo's blast with base hits, and both ended up scoring via a Josh Naylor single and a Will Brennan single.

Brennan then came around to score the go ahead run on a Jhonkensy Noel base hit to right field.

The Guardians play their best baseball when they're manufacturing runs and supplementing that with some homers. That's exactly what Cleveland did in the sixth inning and they won because of it.

Andres Gimenez Defense

Sometimes, we may take Andres Gimenez for granted because of all of the amazing defensive plays he makes at second base every single day.

Gimenez made another spectacular catch in the top of the eighth inning and stole a hit from Freddy Fermin.

The game could've gone very differently if Cleveland's second baseman hadn't made this play. If Fermin reaches, the Royals have the tying run on base with just one out, and Kansas City is getting ready to turn the lineup over.

Instead, Gimenez made it two outs and Hunter Gaddis got out of the inning after the next batter