Wacha returns with 7 strong frames as Royals deliver on defense

CLEVELAND -- The Royals entered Monday night’s series opener against the Guardians needing a well-pitched and deep start from their starter after leaning heavily on their bullpen during their weekend stretch of three games in two days.

Like he has so many times as a Royal, Michael Wacha delivered.

Pushed back from his scheduled weekend start against the Brewers because of an illness, Wacha returned against the Guardians and tossed seven innings of one-run ball in the Royals’ 4-2 win at Progressive Field.

“Glad that sickness is out of me and was able to get back out there,” Wacha said. “ ... That doubleheader [against Milwaukee on Saturday] can definitely take a toll on the bullpen in the following days, for sure, and as a starting pitcher, we know that going into it. We’re always trying to go deep into the game, but kind of more so when you know they’ve had a lot of usage over the past couple of days.”

Wacha needed 102 pitches, worked around three walks and struck out three, but he held the Guardians to just three hits. One of those was Steven Kwan’s home run that fell just fair and a Statcast-projected 381 feet in right field.

That’s the only run Wacha has allowed so far this season in his two starts across 13 innings.

“It’s Michael Wacha,” said Jonathan India after his three-RBI night. “He’s such a dog. He comes to the field every day with a good attitude and works his butt off. Wacha going seven for us was huge.”

Wacha often mentions how fun it is to play in front of the defense that the Royals deploy behind him, and Monday night showed exactly why. The Royals made a number of good defensive plays, including one rare double play in the fourth inning that literally went around the horn when the Royals turned the first 5-6-4-3 double play in MLB since 1995.

“We know we can play defense, especially with a guy like Wacha: He throws a ton of strikes,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Guys are on their toes. On a night like this, you got to be moving around all the time.”

The Guardians weren’t whiffing against Wacha, who registered just six whiffs on 41 swings. But he filled up the zone with his fastball and got some chase on his changeup, cutter and sinker.

“He just looked in command, and when he’d get behind, he would just continue to pound strikes and make them put the ball in play,” Quatraro said.

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One of the most important double plays came in the sixth inning after Wacha walked Chase DeLauter and José Ramírez. Wacha hadn’t walked a batter up until that point and was cruising -- entering that inning at 65 pitches -- but he lost some command at an inopportune time after the Royals had just taken a 2-1 lead on Carter Jensen’s solo homer in the top of the frame.

Wacha got behind, 2-0, to Kyle Manzardo on a changeup -- which was upheld as a ball after catcher Salvador Perez challenged it -- and a fastball. Getting back in the zone, Manzardo fouled off a cutter and a fastball before lining a changeup right into first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino’s glove.

Pasquantino quickly threw to Bobby Witt Jr. at second base to end the inning and the threat.

“Some self-inflicted stressful innings there with some of those walks,” Wacha said. “But the defense had my back, for sure.”

So did the lineup, which was able to push Guardians starter Tanner Bibee out of the game in the fifth with his pitch count at 87 -- and that was fewer than two innings after Bibee threw a six-pitch third.

But the Royals hit the ball hard against him, including Witt’s three at-bats against him: A 115.6 mph single, a 104.4 mph lineout and a 107.8 mph infield single to Manzardo. Witt registered a 31.5 feet/second sprint speed on that, exactly 4 feet/second faster than Pasquantino’s bunt base hit in the first inning. Both counted as hits, though, and the Royals will take them.

No hit ended up bigger than India’s two-run home run in the eighth inning, which proved to be crucial when Guardians No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio hit a solo homer off reliever Matt Strahm in the bottom of the frame.

The Royals saw Wacha’s first start of the season in Atlanta go sideways in the ninth inning. That wasn’t going to happen again on Monday night.

“We knew that we had to put some runs on the board for [Wacha],” Jensen said. “When your guy is throwing that well, you want to give him some support, give him some cushion.”