Pitchers for the Kansas City Royals combined to strike out 11, providing the net for the offense to score the two runs in the sixth needed to defeat the Cleveland Guardians 2-1 on Thursday night at Kauffman Stadium.

The game was scoreless until the fifth inning, when Cleveland’s Daniel Schneemann brought home Tyler Freeman on a sacrifice fly. Cleveland threatened again with the bases loaded in the sixth, but reliever Chris Long struck out Steven Kwan to end the inning. That set the stage in the bottom half of the inning for Maikel Garcia’s triple to tie the game, then score the winning run on Vinnie Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly. Long picked up his second win of the season with four strikeouts in 1.2 innings of work, allowing just one walk. Michael Wacha’s no decision saw him punch out six while allowing all seven of Cleveland’s hits and two walks. James McArthur earned his 14th save of the season.

The win moves the Royals back in the third wild-card spot, a half-game ahead of Boston, while decreasing the deficit to Cleveland in the AL Central to eight games. Game two of the four-game series is Friday evening at 7:10, with pregame beginning at 6:30 on KMMO.

Two Royals players are assured of spots on this year’s All-Star Game roster.

The league announced Thursday afternoon that Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr were both among the top vote-getters in the first phase of All-Star Balloting. They’ll advance to a runoff starting Sunday to determine who will make the American League’s starting lineup. Both players came in second to their counterparts from Baltimore, with Perez facing off with Adley Rutschman for starting catcher, while Witt goes up against Gunnar Henderson for shortstop. No Cardinals players advanced to the second phase in the National League.

The top overall vote-getters by league were Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge in the American League and Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper in the National League. As their league’s top vote-getters, the two have already locked in their starting position.