Melendez collects hit off childhood friend in 'surreal moment'

KANSAS CITY -- Logan Allen and MJ Melendez played baseball together starting when they were five years old all the way up to when they were 18 years old. Their friendship included sleepovers, family functions and countless baseball practices and tournaments.

But it has never included the two friends facing off against each other.

Until Wednesday night.

Allen, the Guardians’ rookie starter, and Melendez, the Royals’ right fielder, faced each other in the second and fourth innings in the Royals’ otherwise forgettable 14-1 loss to the Guardians at Kauffman Stadium.

“It was a very surreal moment,” Melendez said. “We’ve been best friends since we were five years old. Caught him pretty much all his outings in travel ball. To go up there and face him for the first time ever on the biggest stage was pretty cool and really special.”

With one out in the second inning, Melendez stepped to the plate against Allen. The two gave each other a quick head nod before locking in for the at-bat.

“We made it a bit subtle,” Melendez said. “Especially with the pace of the game, and he pitches at a pretty quick pace. So we nodded and locked in.”

The count was 1-1 before Melendez hit a hard grounder on a changeup at the top of the zone, and second baseman Andrés Gimenéz wasn’t able to corral it, leading to a single.

“I was expecting him to be aggressive,” said Allen, who pitched a scoreless 3 2/3 innings while needing 98 pitches. “He put a good swing on it. Probably left it a little more over the plate than I wanted to. … It was really cool to face him.”

Melendez came up again in the fourth inning and flied out to right field, so the two friends ended their day 1-for-2 against each other.

“Definitely glad I got the hit,” Melendez said. “Little bit of bragging rights. I always told him I would hit a home run off him, he always told me he would strike me out. Neither of those happened today. Definitely glad he didn’t strike me out, though.”

Allen’s hometown in the Orlando area is over three hours from Melendez’s hometown in Miami, but the two have a long history because of their travel baseball team. Adding to that history is the fact that Allen played for Melendez’s dad, Mervyl, at Florida International University before being drafted by the Guardians in 2020.

The two constantly talked about making it to the big leagues. It happened for Melendez last season and for Allen when he made his debut this year on April 23. Melendez’s family flew to Cleveland to be there when Allen threw six innings of one-run ball against the Marlins in his debut.

“To have somebody like that and have that friendship be retained throughout the years and be so close still is really cool,” Melendez said. “There are so many [memories] growing up of us together. He was always a super dominant pitcher, good command of all his stuff.”

“I think it’s big for my family, his family,” Allen added. “We played together for such a long time. It’s something we always dreamed about. And obviously getting to share the field was really, really cool.”

The matchup was a fun story on an otherwise miserable night for the Royals. Not only did they allow 14 runs and have to pitch infielder Matt Duffy in the ninth inning, but they watched the Guardians overtake first place in the American League Central, while the Royals clinched their 12th straight winless series. The Royals are batting .121 (11-for-91) with three runs over their last three games, and the 11 hits in that span are their fewest over a three-game span since April 17-19, 2006 (11).

Lefty Austin Cox made his first career start after pitching out of the bullpen to begin his career this year and allowed four runs in 3 2/3 innings, with all four runs coming on José Ramírez's grand slam in the third inning. Cox threw an efficient first inning, but needed 30 pitches to get through the third inning and ended his outing with four walks.

Things did not get better from there, as the Guardians hammered reliever James McArthur for seven runs in the sixth inning during McArthur’s Major League debut.

“There are two good things,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “One, it’s over. And two, we [have] a day game tomorrow, so we can be back here as soon as possible and try to play better tomorrow.”