The Kansas City Royals are in the midst of their most successful stretch of the young season.

Now, the Royals will try for a fifth consecutive win when they continue their four-game home series with the Cleveland Guardians, who they are chasing in the American League Central, on Tuesday night.

Kansas City trailed 2-0 early Monday, then scored four runs in the fourth inning en route to a 6-2 victory over Cleveland.

Bobby Witt Jr. led off the frame with a solo homer, and Nick Loftin capped the big inning with a two-out, two-run tiebreaking single for the Royals, who have averaged 5.8 runs amid their 9-3 stretch that’s followed an eight-game losing streak.

“I think the intensity, pitch-to-pitch, really (sticks) to me,” Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro said of his team’s performance of late.

“Not one guy is trying to be the hero.”

Witt is batting .302 with three homers and eight RBIs in the past 15 games. Meanwhile, teammate Vinnie Pasquantino is 7-for-18 in four games this month after ending April with a .165 average.

“It’s not about getting 10 hits in a row with runners in scoring position,” Pasquantino said. “It’s about just having quality at-bats, making the pitcher work.”

However, Witt and Pasquantino are a combined 4-for-36 against right-hander Gavin Williams (5-1, 2.70 ERA), the scheduled Cleveland starter on Tuesday.

The Guardians are 6-1 when Williams has pitched this season. All of those victories followed a loss in his 2026 debut at Seattle on March 27, and they include the 5 2/3 innings he threw during a 2-1 win over Kansas City on April 7 — when he yielded only a Carter Jensen homer.

Williams is 2-1 with a 2.28 ERA in nine career starts against the Royals.

After allowing a season-high six runs in six innings of an 8-6 win at Toronto on April 24, Williams gave up an unearned run and struck out nine without a walk in Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over Tampa Bay.

“When Gavin throws strikes, that’s what you get,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.

Cleveland has lost two games in a row following a three-game winning streak. David Fry hit a two-run homer and had two of the five hits Monday for the Guardians, who have been outscored 13-3 in the past two contests.

Jose Ramirez singled in the series opener, but the Cleveland star continues to struggle while batting .218, well below his career average of .278.

Steven Kwan is another Cleveland star who is scuffling at the plate. He’s 0-for-8 in the past two games — dropping his batting average to .217. On May 5 of last season, his average was .333.

Ramirez and Kwan will try their luck Tuesday against right-hander Stephen Kolek, who will come off the injured list (left oblique strain) to make his season debut. He is stepping in for scheduled starter Noah Cameron, who has been scratched due to tightness in his lower back.

The Royals acquired Kolek (5-7, 3.51 ERA in 2025) from the San Diego Padres last season at the trade deadline. They received Kolek and right-hander Ryan Bergert for catcher Freddy Fermin.

With the Royals, Kolek started five games and was 1-2 with a 1.91 ERA. In his two losses, the Royals scored a combined two runs.

Kolek has faced the Guardians twice (one start) and has no decisions and a 6.75 ERA.

–Field Level Media

The Chicago Cubs will aim to extend their winning streak to a majors-best seven games on Tuesday night when they continue their four-game series against the visiting Cincinnati Reds.

The Cubs were three outs away from losing on Monday night after a lengthy rain delay, but Nico Hoerner’s sacrifice fly and Michael Conforto’s solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted the team to a dramatic 5-4 win over the Reds, who have lost four straight games.

Chicago resides in first place in the National League Central, a division in which each team is above .500.

“It tells me everyone is playing well,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It also tells me we haven’t played too many games in the division yet.”

The Cubs have won 12 straight games at Wrigley Field, the team’s longest home winning streak since it won 14 in a row in 2008.

A winner of 16 of its last 19 games, Chicago will turn to right-hander Jameson Taillon (2-1, 4.41 ERA) to start Tuesday’s game.

Taillon allowed three runs on three hits in a season-high seven innings of a 5-4 victory over the San Diego Padres last Wednesday.

He is 7-7 with a 4.46 ERA in 20 career appearances against the Reds.

The Cubs keep finding different ways to win, with different players stepping up.

Conforto, pinch-hitting for Matt Shaw, hammered a 3-2 fastball from Reds closer Emilio Pagan into the seats in left-center field to end the game on Monday. It was Conforto’s first homer in a Cubs uniform and the first walk-off homer in his 12-year major league career.

Cincinnati called up top-10 prospect Chase Petty on Monday, and Petty delivered a solid start of 5 2/3 innings with three runs allowed on four hits. He retired nine of the first 11 Cubs he faced and another eight in a row after allowing a home run to Seiya Suzuki.

But with Nick Lodolo expected to come off the injured list from a blister on Friday, Petty could be headed back to Triple-A.

On Tuesday, Cincinnati left-hander Andrew Abbott (1-2, 5.97 ERA) will start against the Cubs. He earned his first win of the season on Thursday against the Colorado Rockies, 6-4, allowing two earned runs on five hits in six innings.

Abbott is 3-1 with a 2.56 ERA in seven career starts against the Cubs.

The Reds have played 14 games decided by two or fewer runs this season. They had a 12-game winning streak in those games but have lost their last two by one run, including Monday night. They have seven wins in one-run games this season.

“Nothing’s changed as far as our mindset as a team,” Pagan told The Cincinnati Enquirer moments after giving up the decisive home run to Conforto. “We know we’re really good. We’ve played a lot of close ballgames, and quite honestly I haven’t held up my end of the bargain.”

–Field Level Media

The last thing the St. Louis Cardinals want is for Mother Nature to rain on their parade.

The Cardinals, winners of seven of their past eight games, have momentum and are scheduled to host the Milwaukee Brewers in a key early season National League Central clash on Tuesday night. But the forecast for rain throughout the day makes the game iffy.

The Brewers have won four of the past five Central titles but are in last place in what is turning out to be an ultra-competitive division. They are 18-16 — 4 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs and 2 1/2 behind second-place St. Louis.

The Cardinals added to their cushion over Milwaukee on Monday with a 6-3 victory in the opener of a three-game series.

The big blow was Ivan Herrera’s bases-loaded, three-run double in the fourth after JJ Wetherholt had been intentionally walked with first base open.

“He enjoyed every second of it,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said of Herrera’s reaction after he reached second.

Wetherholt also had two RBI singles.

Being asked to continue the run for St. Louis is right-hander Andre Pallante (3-2, 3.73 ERA). He is coming off a quality start in the Cardinals’ 5-4 win last Wednesday against the Pirates in Pittsburgh: one run, five hits, no walks and six strikeouts in six innings.

Pallante has thrown at least five innings in each of his six starts. In his fifth season with the Cardinals, he has gone against the Brewers 15 times (three starts) and is 0-2 overall with a 5.06 ERA.

In his most recent appearance against Milwaukee, on Sept. 12, 2025, he allowed five runs (two earned) on three hits and four walks in five innings and did not strike out a batter. He was tagged with the 8-2 loss.

Pallante will look for offense from players such as first baseman Alec Burleson, who was named NL Player of the Week on Monday. In seven games last week, Burleson hit .407 with two home runs, 11 RBIs, three doubles, four walks, eight runs, a .741 slugging percentage and a .484 on-base percentage.

His hitting barrage did not continue Monday night, however; he was 0-for-5 with three strikeouts.

The Brewers, meanwhile, got great news with the activation of outfielder Jackson Chourio, who hadn’t played all season due to a fractured bone in his left hand. He suffered the injury while playing for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic.

On Monday night, however, he appeared to be in midseason form, finishing his season debut with a 4-for-4 performance that included two doubles, a walk and a run.

Brice Turang was 3-for-5 with a two-run homer, his fifth.

Milwaukee’s scheduled starter on Tuesday, rookie right-hander Brandon Sproat (0-2, 6.75 ERA), took a 6-2 loss to the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks last Wednesday.

His first four outs came via strikeout, and he was staked to a 2-0 lead after the first three innings.

“Sproat was throwing the ball incredible for three innings. He was so good,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. “But give credit to the Diamondbacks. They were getting dominated, and they came back and had a great approach and took advantage.”

That adjustment came in the fourth when Arizona scored four runs, with the big blow being Nolan Arenado’s three-run homer that put Arizona ahead 4-2.

Sproat’s final line for the game was four runs and six hits in 4 1/3 innings with two walks and five strikeouts.

“No. Nothing different,” Sproat said when asked if anything besides the result changed for him after three innings. “Mentally-wise or physically-wise.”

He has yet to face the Cardinals in his career.

–Field Level Media