{"id":691511,"date":"2026-05-06T04:06:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/691511\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T04:06:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:06:55","slug":"guardians-lose-3rd-straight-as-gavin-williams-struggles-for-cleveland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/691511\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardians lose 3rd straight as Gavin Williams struggles for Cleveland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Kolek<\/a> allowed only a three-run homer over six solid innings of his 2026 debut, and Michael Massey<\/a> clubbed a go-ahead, two-run shot in the fourth as the surging Kansas City Royals<\/a> won their season-high fifth straight, 5-3 over the visiting\u00a0Cleveland\u00a0Guardians\u00a0on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Isaac Collins<\/a> also homered and was a triple shy of the cycle for the Royals, who have won the first two of this four-game set by a combined 11-5 margin and are 10-3 since losing eight in a row.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Kolek (1-0) was activated off the 15-day injury list from an oblique strain to take the mound in place of Noah Cameron<\/a>, who was scratched with low back tightness.<\/p>\n

The right-hander yielded three of his four hits in the fourth, when Rhys Hoskins<\/a> went deep with two on. Kolek allowed only one other hit, didn’t walk a batter and retired the final eight\u00a0Guardians<\/a>\u00a0he faced.<\/p>\n

1 \/ 5<\/p>\n

Jose Ramirez and Guardians series at Bobby Witt Jr.-led Royals<\/p>\n

May 4, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians head coach Stephen Vogt in the dugout prior to a game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1 \/ 5<\/p>\n

Jose Ramirez and Guardians series at Bobby Witt Jr.-led Royals<\/p>\n

May 4, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians head coach Stephen Vogt in the dugout prior to a game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2 \/ 5<\/p>\n

Jose Ramirez and Guardians series at Bobby Witt Jr.-led Royals<\/p>\n

May 4, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Michael Wacha (52) delivers a pitch against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

3 \/ 5<\/p>\n

Jose Ramirez and Guardians series at Bobby Witt Jr.-led Royals<\/p>\n

May 4, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Michael Wacha (52) delivers a pitch against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

4 \/ 5<\/p>\n

Jose Ramirez and Guardians series at Bobby Witt Jr.-led Royals<\/p>\n

May 4, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee (28) delivers a pitch against the Kansas City Royals during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5 \/ 5<\/p>\n

Jose Ramirez and Guardians series at Bobby Witt Jr.-led Royals<\/p>\n

May 4, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee (28) delivers a pitch against the Kansas City Royals during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Royals, meanwhile, wasted no time getting to\u00a0Cleveland’s Gavin Williams<\/a> (5-2). He walked Maikel Garcia<\/a> to open the bottom of the first and Bobby Witt Jr.<\/a> followed with a double into the right-field gap. Two batters later, Salvador Perez<\/a> drove both home with his single to center.<\/p>\n

In the fourth, Kolek allowed singles to Chase DeLauter<\/a> and Kyle Manzardo<\/a>, and both scored when Hoskins sent a drive off the left-field foul pole to give the\u00a0Guardians<\/a>\u00a0a 3-2 edge.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/p>\n

May 5, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Stephen Kolek (32) throws a pitch against the Cleveland Guardians in the first inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Aiken-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

However, the Royals regained the lead in the bottom of the frame. Collins cracked a one-out double and scored on Massey’s shot well over the right-field wall.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Kansas City<\/a> added on in the sixth when Collins barely cleared the right-field fence with two out in the frame off Williams, who allowed a season-high eight hits while striking out seven with two walks over six innings.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/p>\n

May 5, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals second baseman Michael Massey (19) hits a two-run home run in the fourth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Aiken-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Cleveland, which has dropped three in a row after winning three straight, had won six consecutive starts made by Williams entering this contest.<\/p>\n

Witt had two hits and Kansas City relievers Nick Mears<\/a>, Daniel Lynch IV<\/a> and Lucas Erceg<\/a> (10th save) didn’t yield a hit over three innings.<\/p>\n

The Akron Beacon\u00a0Journal\u00a0sports department can be contacted via email at\u00a0bjsports@thebeaconjournal.com.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians score vs. Royals. Stephen Kolek outpitches Gavin Williams<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Kolek allowed only a three-run homer over six solid innings of his 2026 debut, and Michael Massey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,1351,22912,135,51,2565,14419,2078,538,4362,2123,55,1389,1107,2162,2128,4,4363,1357,130,373,5176,2122],"class_list":["post-691511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-guardians","tag-baseball","tag-bobby-witt-jr","tag-chase-delauter","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-clevelandguardians","tag-daniel-lynch-iv","tag-gavin-williams","tag-guardians","tag-isaac-collins","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kyle-manzardo","tag-lucas-erceg","tag-maikel-garcia","tag-michael-massey","tag-mlb","tag-nick-mears","tag-noah-cameron","tag-rhys-hoskins","tag-salvador-perez","tag-stephen-kolek","tag-the-royals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116525666120741911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}