ARCHIVE May 7, 2026
May 7, 2026 · AL Cent

Cleveland Guardians vs Kansas City Royals

May 7, 2026Kauffman StadiumPartly Cloudy 63°F · 10 mph, Out To RF
AWAY
Cleveland Guardians
20-19
8
vs
HOME
Kansas City Royals
17-21
5

Starting pitchers

AWAY · CLE
Slade Cecconi
Slade Cecconi
IP 5.1
HOME · KC
Seth Lugo
Seth Lugo
IP 4

Lineups

AWAY · CLE
  1. 1 Steven Kwan LF
  2. 2 Chase DeLauter RF
  3. 3 José Ramírez DH
  4. 4 Kyle Manzardo 1B
  5. 5 Daniel Schneemann 3B
  6. 6 Travis Bazzana 2B
  7. 7 Brayan Rocchio SS
  8. 8 Bo Naylor C
  9. 9 Petey Halpin CF
HOME · KC
  1. 1 Maikel Garcia 3B
  2. 2 Bobby Witt Jr. SS
  3. 3 Vinnie Pasquantino 1B
  4. 4 Salvador Perez DH
  5. 5 Carter Jensen C
  6. 6 Jac Caglianone RF
  7. 7 Isaac Collins LF
  8. 8 Michael Massey 2B
  9. 9 Kyle Isbel CF

Box score

  123456789 R
CLE 301001300 8
KC 000011210 5

Manager comparison

Both managers grade C+ / C entering this matchup.

AWAY · CLE
Stephen Vogt
C+ Lineup 1.5 R Bunts 0.7 R IBBs 0.4 R
HOME · KC
Matt Quatraro
C Lineup 1.9 R Bunts 1.1 R IBBs 0.8 R

Recent form

AWAY · CLE
6-4 W3 +7 run diff
WWWLLLWWWL
HOME · KC
6-4 W1 +1 run diff
WLLWWWWWLL

Season series: 3-2 with CLE listed first across 5 prior meetings.

Tactical analysis

RunsLeft separates manager decisions from player execution from game variance. Each card below is the same three-number framework that drives the share cards on the SPA replay page.

AWAY · Cleveland Guardians
  • Manager lineup cost −0.04 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.50 vs actual lineup 3.54
  • Player execution +4.46 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 3.54 projection by 4.46 (scored 8)
  • Game variance +4.50 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Naylor HR from the 8-hole

HOME · Kansas City Royals
  • Manager lineup cost −0.10 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.71 vs actual lineup 4.81
  • Player execution +0.19 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 4.81 projection by 0.19 (scored 5)
  • Game variance +0.29 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Perez 0-for-5 batting 4th

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 3.5 – 4.7 — actual was 8 – 5.

Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. Tactical analysis comes from a per-game Monte Carlo: 10,000 simulated games against the opposing starter's ERA, both for the actual lineup the manager wrote and for the optimal arrangement of those nine players. The three numbers — manager cost, player execution, game variance — separate which part of the result was the lineup, the players, or the dice.

Read the full methodology.