Outstanding pitching has given the Cleveland Guardians some breathing room against the Kansas City Royals, as the teams were tied just a week ago.

Gavin Williams fired seven innings of one-hit ball as Cleveland opened a three-game series with a 4-2 win on Monday night in Kansas City.

Mikael Garcia put KC on the board in the second inning with a double to score Yuri Gurriel. That was the only hit the Royals could muster off Williams (3-7).

Cleveland’s offense didn’t catch fire until the fifth inning, when Lane Thomas hit a two-run homer to left-center field off Michael Wacha (11-7).

Thomas has hit nine home runs, and this was his first since he arrived from Washington in late July.

In the sixth, Josh Naylor also hit a two-run bomb to put Cleveland up 4-1. He joined Jose Ramirez in the 100 RBI club.

REAL RELIEF

At this point in the game, a victory was almost certainly in the bag, because Cleveland’s bullpen usually comes through.

Cade Smith gave up the Royals’ other run in the eighth inning on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Isbel.

Emmanual Clase continued his Cy Young-contending season by putting away the Royals in order in the ninth inning for his 41st save. His ERA is 0.70.

The Royals have lost six in a row since they pulled into a tie for first place with the Guardians last Tuesday. Cleveland now leads Minnesota by 3½ games and Kansas City by 4½ games.

Tanner Bibee (10-6) will start tonight for Cleveland against the Royals’ Brady Singer (9-9). Game time is 7:40 p.m. Eastern.