WATCH: Royals' Matt Quatraro ejected from Guardians game after arguing about Nick Loftin's out
Kansas City Royals manager Matt Quatraro argued with the third base umpire Tripp Gibson over a baseline call, resulting in his getting ejected from the game. In the fifth inning, Hunter Renfroe had weak contact on Cleveland Guardians' Ben Lively's pitch, which went to the third baseman.
Nick Loftin hustled from second to third and in the process. To avoid the tag, he changed his direction and, according to the umpire, moved away from the baseline, resulting in Gibson calling him out. This had Quatraro running to the field to argue the call and soon the conversation heated up before the eventual ejection.
A closer look at the play does seem to suggest that Loftin indeed went away from the basepath to avoid being tagged by Jose Ramirez. According to MLB playing rules, a runner can veer up to 3 feet from the baseline during his running.
Royals' narrow come-from-behind victory against Guardians
Runs dried up on Thursday as both teams struggled to stitch good hits together. The whole game saw only three runs scored, with the game going in favor of the Royals 2-1.
The first game of the run came in the fifth for the Guardians. Tyler Freeman started the fifth with a single against the Royals' starter, Michael Wacha. Steven Kwan followed it up with a double and finally, a sac fly from Daniel Schneemann got the first run on board for the Guardians.
The Royals responded in the bottom of the sixth inning. Up against Ben Lively, Kyle Isbel and Maikel Garcia started the inning with back-to-back triples, as Isbel scored the first run. Garcia scored on a sac fly from Vinnie Pasquantino.
Over 5.1 innings, Wacha gave up one run on seven hits, two walks, and six strikeouts. However, it was Sam Long who earned the win in relief. He came out on top in the sixth despite the jam and retired the seventh inning as well.
With the win, the Royals improved to 45-38, while the Guardians dropped to 51-28. The two meet again on Friday for the second game of the three-game series.