The Cleveland Guardians came to Kansas City as the quintessential .500 team.

Not only do they have a .500 record overall, but they are even-steven at home and on the road.

It gets better! It gets funnier! Look at these statistics that show the Guardians’ remarkable consistency (click here).

So it’s no surprise that Cleveland split the doubleheader yesterday with the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

ROYALS 5, GUARDIANS 3

Emmanuel Clase isn’t perfect. He had a horrible April, which mirrored his multiple meltdowns in the 2024 playoffs.

But since May, we’ve been tracking how he’s been racking up saves and lowering his ERA from the 5’s to the 2’s.

Clase proved to be mortal in the opening game, giving up a walk-off, three-run homer to Jonathan India in the 10th inning.

Cleveland’s Gavin Williams and Kansas City’s Michael Wacha had a scoreless battle going for three innings.

Mikael Garcia hit a two-run bomb off Williams in the fourth inning.

Bo Naylor, despite his season-long hitting woes, tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the fifth and an RBI double in the seventh.

Daniel Schneemann scored both runs.

Cleveland loaded the bases in the 10th, and Kyle Manzardo singled to score Steven Kwan with the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of the 10th, India flipped the script and sent the first batch of Royals fans home happy.

GUARDIANS 6, ROYALS 4

Cleveland staked Tanner Bibee to a 3-0 lead in the first inning.

Kansas City’s All-Star starter Kris Bubic made it easy by walking the first four batters he faced.

Carlos Santana drew walk No. 4 to score Steven Kwan. Jonathan Rodriguez added a two-run single.

Royals catcher Freddy Fermin hit a two-run homer in the second inning to cut the Guardians’ lead to 3-2.

Schneemann gave Cleveland some breathing room with a sacrifice fly to score Jose Ramirez in the third.

Steven Kwan blasted a 431-foot home run into right-field fountains in the fourth. Brayan Rocchio scored, and Cleveland was on top 6-2.

Kansas City got another two-run homer from Bobby Witt in the fifth, but Bibee (7-9) finished the inning to record his third straight victory.

Cleveland’s bullpen made the lead stand up with two scoreless innings from Nic Enright and one apiece from Hunter Gaddis and Clase.

The Guardians’ closer picked up his 24th save and brought his ERA back down to 3.23.

WIN THE SERIES

Cleveland is only seven games out of first place, as the Detroit Tigers lost again (thanks, Blue Jays).

Joey Cantillo (2-0) will start for the Guardians today at 2:10 against Noah Cameron (4-4) for the Royals.