CLEVELAND -- Lucas Erceg had inherited 11 baserunners since becoming a Royal entering Wednesday afternoon and had stranded all of them. In 11 outings with Kansas City, the right-handed reliever had also yet to allow a run.

This is baseball, so Erceg¡¯s streaks were going to end at some point -- in a massive spot, too, because Erceg has only pitched in those game-on-the-line moments.

That moment came on Wednesday when he allowed two inherited runners to score and gave up a run of his own during the Guardians¡¯ four-run seventh inning in the Royals' eventual 7-5 loss at Progressive Field. The defeat wrapped up this three-day, four-game series between two teams in the thick of a division race as September nears.

"I think [this series] proves it¡¯s going to be a fun month,¡± said Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, who homered in the first inning en route to his first career four-hit game.

The Royals would have liked a sweep, but they¡¯re leaving Cleveland just one game behind the Guardians for the American League Central lead with 29 games left. By briefly tying them atop the division with Tuesday¡¯s win, the Royals clinched the season series against the Guardians, as they are now ahead 7-3 with three more games to play against them next week in Kansas City.

¡°Every time we play a series, we want to win the series,¡± manager Matt Quatraro said. ¡°That was a good step forward for us to win it. When you get the first three, you want to win the fourth. It¡¯s disappointing today, but by no means should that put a damper on what these guys accomplished. And it¡¯s a race. We¡¯re going to [go] back and forth.¡±

The three wins didn¡¯t come easy. Kansas City starters covered just 10 1/3 innings over those first three games, leaving relievers to pick up 16 2/3 innings. Monday¡¯s doubleheader was one problem, but Michael Lorenzen leaving Tuesday¡¯s start in the second inning was another, leaving the Royals with an extremely thin bullpen on Wednesday.

They were going to need starter Michael Wacha to eat innings, and he logged six-plus. But he was sent out for the seventh to try and squeeze a couple more outs with the Guardians¡¯ No. 9 hitter, Bo Naylor, due to bat.

¡°He gave us length, and still, we were hoping for a little bit more, just to be comfortable and not put anybody in risk of getting injured,¡± Quatraro said.

Here¡¯s who wasn¡¯t available Wednesday out of the ¡®pen: John Schreiber (15 pitches in each of the past two days), Sam Long (12 pitches on Tuesday, 26 on Monday), James McArthur (22 pitches on Tuesday, 16 on Monday) and Carlos Hern¨¢ndez (44 pitches on Tuesday, his third game pitching in the last five days including his time with Triple-A Omaha).

Quatraro wanted to stay away from Daniel Lynch IV, a traditional starter who threw 34 pitches in three scoreless innings on Monday. Similarly, he didn¡¯t want to use Kris Bubic, who pitched on back-to-back days Sunday and Monday and is in his first year post-Tommy John surgery. If the Royals had the lead late, Bubic could have thrown.

The Royals, essentially, had Erceg, Chris Stratton and Steven Cruz available. Wacha was at 91 pitches entering the seventh, so Quatraro sent the starter back to the mound.

It didn¡¯t go as planned.

Naylor hit his 11th home run of the year to bring the Guardians within two runs. Steven Kwan and Andr¨¦s Gim¨¦nez both went to the opposite field to put two on and nobody out for the Guardians¡¯ best hitter, Jos¨¦ Ram¨ªrez.

¡°I was trying to get ahead with the fastball down and away, and made a bad pitch, and [Naylor] was ready for it,¡± Wacha said. ¡°And then flipped over to the top of the lineup with Kwan, and he¡¯s a hit machine.¡±

Quatraro added: ¡°He¡¯d been throwing the ball well, settled in nicely, had good life on his pitches. We thought that was a good spot for us to keep him going at the bottom of the order. We knew that if he got into trouble, it was going to be Erceg.¡±

It was the biggest spot in the game, and Quatraro has been consistent in using Erceg there, even if it¡¯s earlier than the ninth. He got Ram¨ªrez to fly out but allowed a wild pitch, a single to Josh Naylor and two consecutive singles to Will Brennan and Johnkensy Noel -- all weak contact -- for the Guardians to take the lead.

¡°That¡¯s baseball in a nutshell,¡± Erceg said. ¡°Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. ¡­ Overall, the process stayed the same. I went out there and competed, and it didn¡¯t go my way today.¡±