KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Perhaps all is took was one win to break the curse that seemed to infect everything the Royals did for the first two weeks of the season.
Even if this week signaled just a temporary respite, the past two days have certainly been an early-season reversal of fortunes for a previously snake-bitten Royals ballclub.
The Royals, who'd already seen several promising outings fall apart in the seventh inning or later, got a turn-back-the-clock pitching performance from 32-year-old starter Homer Bailey and the bullpen made a three-run lead hold up as though it were a dozen on the way to a 3-0 win in front of an announced 15,188 at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday night.
The win clinched a series win for the Royals, their first since they took two of three from the Chicago White Sox to start the season. The Royals will try to sweep the three-game set on Sunday.
Hunter Dozier and Whit Merrifield registered two hits apiece while Ryan O'Hearn smacked a solo home run to lead the Royals offensively.
Bailey provided the best start for a Royals pitcher this season since Brad Keller tossed seven scoreless in the season opener against the White Sox. Bailey allowed two hits, walked two and struck out six in his seven innings of work.
The bullpen duo of Ian Kennedy and Wily Peralta didn't allow a runner to reach base in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively.
Bailey hadn't gone seven scoreless since September 27, 2017, as a member of the Cincinnati Reds in a start against the Milwaukee Brewers. He pitched seven or more innings just twice in 2018.
Adalberto Mondesi's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the third drove in the night's first run. In 10 previous games in his home ballpark this season, Mondesi batted .381 with a .413 on-base percentage and .810 slugging percentage (10 extra-base hits).
O'Hearn doubled that lead an inning later when he turned on the first pitch of his second at-bat against Indians starter Jefry Rodrigez. O'Hearn deposited that ball in the right-field stands for his second home run of the season.
O'Hearn, who had an astoundingly-productive start to his big league career last season (12 home runs, 24 extra-base hits, 30 RBI in 44 games), snapped a seven-game homerless streak. That seven-game span marked the longest such span in his tenure in the majors.
With runners on second and third and two outs in the seventh, Merrifield lined a pitch towards shortstop that got on top of Cleveland's Max Moroff too quickly for him to corral. The single allowed Dozier to score from third, while Lucas Duda got thrown out at the plate as he tried to score from second.
Dozier's run gave the Royals a 3-0 lead, and the bullpen took over for Bailey in the eighth.
