CLEVELAND -- Two pitches. That’s all it took to sum up the Guardians’ day against the Royals.

Logan Allen thought he had struck out Royals designated hitter Salvador Perez on a ball in the dirt. The Guardians thought he swung and missed for the second out of the inning. Instead, a foul tip was called and because the ball hit the dirt, Perez’s at-bat was extended. The next pitch sailed into the left-field seats to give the Royals the lead after Cleveland had gotten on the scoreboard first.

Perez was only getting started, considering he hit a grand slam in his next at-bat, but it was at that moment that it was clear the momentum had gone far away from the Guardians’ bench. Cleveland had already dropped the first game of the twin bill, 4-3. It fell again to Kansas City, 9-4, in the nightcap at Progressive Field, which caused the Guardians’ three-game lead in the AL Central to drop to just one.

And with one more Royals win, Kansas City will secure the advantage in a tie-breaking scenario by winning the season series.

“Obviously, we need to play better,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “Obviously, we need to be more consistent. We know that.”

This wasn’t the plan. The Guardians were ready to finally secure their first win on a doubleheader day, but instead, they extended their 2024 doubleheader record to 0-8. The last team to lose eight doubleheader games in a single season was the 2011 Twins.

But these struggles date back even farther than just this year. Since the start of the 2023 season, Cleveland has gone 1-17 in doubleheader games. The last team to do that in a span of 18 doubleheader games was the 1970 White Sox, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs and the Elias Sports Bureau.

It’s hard to compare last season to this season. The Guardians have a new manager, along with a handful of different players. Some of it can be chalked up to bad luck. But this year, the losses have highlighted Cleveland’s starting pitching problems.

The doubleheader fell on Alex Cobb’s day to pitch, but last week, he was placed on the injured list after splitting open his fingernail. That meant two games, zero starters.

The Guardians had to once again dig into their farm system to try to piece 18 innings together. Joey Cantillo, the club’s No. 17 prospect, was recalled to be the 27th man for the day. The plan that had been publicized was that Nick Sandlin would open the matinee and Cantillo would come in later to handle the bulk of the innings. Instead, the Guardians opted to have Eli Morgan, Scott Barlow, Connor Gillispie and Hunter Gaddis pitch before Cantillo entered in the eighth.

“We had a plan in place,” Vogt said. “I felt like we executed the plan pretty close to how we wanted to. Just didn’t work.”

“I had no idea,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “They said Cantillo, but once you get in the game, all bets are off. … Both teams have to try to manage 18 innings, and that was the best way they thought they could get through it.”

It was a strategy that was effective all the way up until Gaddis gave up the deciding homer in the eighth for just the third run he’s allowed at home this season. But by the time the Guardians got to Game 2 after the first loss, the bullpen had taken a hit and Allen needed to eat up as many innings as he could.

“Game 1, we went with what we thought was going to help us win the game, we just didn’t come out on top,” Vogt said. “In Game 2, we had what we had.”

Allen gave up five runs in five innings. And when long man Pedro Avila gave up three in just one-third of a frame, Cleveland had to burn through the rest of the ‘pen, using Emmanuel Clase for the second consecutive day despite a five-run deficit.

It resulted in two losses and a depleted pitching staff to start a critical week-long span with seven head-to-head matchups between the top two clubs in the AL Central. But Vogt didn’t feel the need to address his team. He said no one in the clubhouse is hitting the panic button. They’re confident that they’ve proven they can turn things around overnight.

“Stay the course, keep doing what we’re doing,” Vogt said. “All of our guys, we’re going to show up and we’re going to fight. … That’s who we are.”