Jose Ramirez hit a go-ahead homer in the 14th inning and the Indians held on to beat the Kansas City Royals 5-4 Thursday night in a game that lasted just shy of five hours and finished after midnight. Cleveland is 15-4 this month, the second-best record in the majors. A.J. Cole earned his first save since May 15, 2015, in his second major league appearance.
After allowing the first three batters to reach, Cole retired the next three in order, striking out Bubba Starling to end the game. Kansas City got a run in the 14th on Jorge Soler's sacrifice fly. Adam Plutko pitched 5 1/3 innings and gave up three runs on seven hits while making his second consecutive start against the Royals. Francisco Lindor hit his 17th home run but Hunter Dozier answered in the bottom of the first with his 16th of the season, a two-run shot to put Kansas City up 2-1. The Indians scored twice in the sixth to briefly take a 3-2 lead before the Royals tied it in the bottom half. Neither bullpen flinched for the next seven innings.
Mike Montgomery matched his longest outing of the season, pitching five innings and giving up one run on five hits in his second start for the Royals since coming over in a trade with the Chicago Cubs. Since July 15, Royals starters are 6-2 with a 2.45 ERA.
UP NEXT
The Royals and Indians play the second of their four-game series Friday night. Zach Plesac (4-3) starts for Cleveland, and Kansas City will hand the ball to Jakob Junis (6-8), who was placed on the paternity list Wednesday for the birth of his third child. Junis is pitching as well as he has at any point in his career, allowing just three runs in 20 innings over his last three starts. Plesac will make his second straight start against the Royals. He was the winning pitcher Sunday, tossing six innings of two-run ball.
