Yarbrough quiets Guards again to set up offense, bullpen 

CLEVELAND -- The Royals came back to Cleveland on Monday night and experienced déjà vu when starter Ryan Yarbrough took the mound.

Yarbrough tossed six strong innings in the Royals’ 5-3 win over the Guardians at Progressive Field in the series opener, marking the second time in his past three outings that he threw a quality start against Cleveland.

Yarbrough set the tone, the offense gave him support and the bullpen finished off a win -- all things the Royals must see in the back half of the season as they look toward the future. Here are three things that stood out from Monday’s victory:

1. Yarbrough baffles Guardians again
Yarbrough mixed it up just enough to keep the Guardians off balance and swinging weakly. Cleveland averaged an 83.9 mph exit velocity against Yarbrough and whiffed seven times on 53 swings. To keep things unpredictable, Yarbrough mixed in his cutter and changeup more than he did during his last start at Progressive Field on July 9.

“You really try not to do too much, because you still want to pitch to your strengths,” Yarbrough said. “But obviously, you have an understanding that they have an idea of what you’re trying to do. So you try to mix it up a little bit that way.”

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Yarbrough faced lefty Andrés Giménez for the third time and got to 0-2 quickly before Giménez fouled off a sinker, a curveball and a changeup. On the seventh pitch -- Yarbrough's season-high 99th of the game -- Giménez grounded out sharply to third base.

“They do swing a lot, they’re aggressive, but at the same time, they don’t strike out much,” Yarbrough said. “So it’s just a matter of pitching to my game, knowing that I get a lot of weak contact and seeing how they react to certain pitches and how they’re swinging the bat. It tells you a lot, and you just go from there.”

2. Top of lineup performs like it should
When the top of the Royals’ lineup is producing, and there’s a power source in the middle, the offense looks much different. Leadoff hitter Maikel Garcia and No. 2 hitter Bobby Witt Jr. are providing a one-two punch at the top of the lineup; Garcia went to the opposite field for his fourth homer of the season on Monday, extending his hit streak to five games. And Witt marked his third straight multihit game with a double and single.

Their production helps the middle of the lineup produce runs, like when Salvador Perez, hitting cleanup, crushed a two-run homer in the sixth inning with Witt on second base. It was Perez’s second blast in as many days and the 200th of his career as a catcher.

“Every time we win and I hit a homer, it feels better,” Perez said. “If I hit a homer and we lost, it doesn’t feel that good.”

3. Bullpen rises to occasion
Kansas City's bullpen entered Monday with a 6.84 ERA since the All-Star break. The unit has not been good at finishing games or keeping deficits close.

It nearly went that way again when Jose Cuas allowed two runs in the seventh inning, cutting the Royals’ lead to two, but Carlos Hernández needed just nine pitches for a scoreless eighth inning. And Scott Barlow -- the team's priority trade candidate ahead of next week’s Trade Deadline -- bounced back in a big way with his 12th save of the season.

Barlow had allowed seven runs (six earned) on five hits and five walks in 1 2/3 innings in his past two outings. He allowed two soft singles in the ninth before he got out of the jam with a groundout from Steven Kwan.

“I think he threw the ball better to lefties than he has been,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He mixed in some fastballs, kept them off balance. These guys don’t miss. So it’s really hard to get strikeouts. But for him to nail down the save there is a great thing for all of us.”

Not only do the Royals need Barlow to perform well ahead of the Deadline, but they need him to finish games while he’s still with Kansas City. Getting him back on track Monday was crucial for this next week.

“That’s the biggest thing in this game is flushing the bad ones and coming in the next day, talking with coaches and everyone to see what could you do better,” Barlow said. “That was one thing I took away, I was kind of nibbling a little bit out of the zone this past week, so just get back in the zone and trust my stuff.”