CLEVELAND -- In the second inning on Thursday night, it looked as if another Jordan Lyles start was going to go off the rails.

After tossing a scoreless, 18-pitch first inning, Lyles did something he’s done far too often this season: allow a home run. This time, Cleveland’s Andrés Giménez did the damage by golfing a sweeper into Progressive Field’s right-field bleachers.

But then after that, Lyles did something he hasn’t done much of this season: he settled in.

After Giménez’s long ball, Lyles tossed three more scoreless innings in the Royals’ 6-1 loss to the Guardians in his first start after missing his previous turn through the rotation due to an illness.

Cleveland put two more runners on against Lyles in the second inning, but he was able to get out of the jam thanks to a 4-6-3 double play. An inning later, the Guardians stranded two more runners against Lyles after he struck out Giménez to end the inning.

“That double play was big for me to help limit my damage, and get back in the dugout and start fresh,” Lyles said. “It was good to get back out there and compete.”

While this was only Lyles’ fourth career start against Cleveland, he took the mound with a batterymate (All-Star catcher Salvador Perez) who was playing in his 137th game against the Guardians, something that Lyles said helped him feel comfortable in his return to the mound.

The strong start was another positive sign for Lyles, who is beginning to turn things around after a dreadful start to 2023. Lyles has allowed three runs or fewer in three of his past six starts after only holding opposing teams under three runs in one of his first 11 starts.

“The last three starts have been pretty good,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He’s been throwing the ball well. Kind of what we expected.”

Things took a turn for the worse once Lyles left the series opener, however, as José Ramírez and Josh Naylor welcomed reliever Amir Garrett into the game with back-to-back homers in a four-run sixth.

Neither home run would have left the park at Kauffman Stadium, and the Royals challenged to no avail to see if a fan had interfered with Ramírez’s home run, which just snuck over the 19-foot wall in left field.

“I thought I threw a pretty good pitch to José, but his bat stays in the zone for a long time,” Garrett said. “I didn’t think he hit the ball that well, but he hit it well enough to get the ball out. [Naylor] got a good pitch to hit and put it out. Those guys are good hitters.”

The Guardians added another run off Garrett when Giménez scored on Nicky Lopez’s first error of the season before finishing the inning with an RBI double from Bo Naylor off Collin Snider.

Cleveland looked like it was destined to score more in the inning, but MJ Melendez made a jumping catch to end the frame and rob Steven Kwan of extra bases. The catch was one of three strong defensive plays from Melendez, who entered Thursday ranked in the seventh percentile in outs above average.

“[Those were] really nice plays,” Quatraro said. “Got some really good jumps. That’s a credit to him. He wasn’t having the best night at the plate, but he was able to separate and help us on defense.”

The Royals jumped on Guardians starter Tanner Bibee in the first inning, thanks in large part to their lineup mainstays. Bobby Witt Jr. singled and stole second. Perez worked a four-pitch walk, and Nick Pratto made it count with an RBI single.

The Royals then spent most of the evening working with traffic on the basepaths, as they left 11 on base, highlighted by a bases-loaded, two-out opportunity in the second inning that ended on a Perez flyout.

“It’s all about consistently putting good at-bats together, whether it’s leading off the game or late in the game,” Pratto said. “I thought we conducted our at-bats well, we just chased in big spots. I saw a lot of good things out of us tonight.”

After opening the month by taking two of three from the Dodgers, the Royals have now dropped four straight and they are one loss shy of tying the A’s for the worst record in baseball.

“There’s ebbs and flows to this game,” Pratto said. “Consistency is hard to find.”