You dolt. You idiot. You rube. You fool. You know nothing. This guy said it looked bad for the Royals in today’s game thread. Who is that guy? He sucks. *Getting a message in my earpiece* Oh, well, uh. I’m being told that the Royals put together 22 hits in a 15-1 complete drubbing of the Phillies.
Tyler Tolbert went 5-for-5 (the first 5-hit game by a Royal since Hunter Dozier in May 2022). Every starter except Josh Rojas had at least 1 hit. Salvador Perez nearly hit for the cycle (he was a triple
short before being removed after a HBP). Tolbert himself was only a triple short of the cycle. The Royals scored in every inning. Every one!
The game did not start all that well. Noah Cameron gave up two doubles (one off the center field fence to Alec Bohm) and a walk in the first inning before getting a second out. After a mound visit, he managed to get the last two outs sandwiched around another walk without giving up another run. Which was good – the bases were loaded. Always nice to see a guy get out of a jam without his best stuff. That was the theme of the day for Cameron; more on that later.
But then it turned heavily into the Royals favor in the bottom of the first. The Royals got that first run back through some small ball – a walk, a forceout that Bobby beat the double play on despite hitting it really hard because he’s a speed demon, and a single put runners on first and second with one out. Jac Caglianone hit another grounder that looked like an easy double play ball to end the inning, but Phillies shortstop Trea Turner made an errant throw to first that allowed a runner to score with only one out added to the tally.
The Royals followed with a singles parade to make a speed dater blush. Nick Loftin did not challenge a clear ball on 3-0, but he popped a single to right field anyway to score Cags on a *very* close play at home. Right fielder Brandon Marsh made a beautiful throw and it still wasn’t good enough. Starling Marte lined another Sánchez offering to left field, this time scoring Loftin on a play that was not close at the plate. Tyler Tolbert chopped a weak grounder to short, and this time Turner actually made the throw. But Tolbert’s fast and beat the throw. Poor Turner haha.
Luke Maile came to the plate with two outs, two runners on, and a 3-1 lead. He blew open the game with an opposite-field dinger that juuuuuuuust barely cleared the fence and the outstretched glove of center fielder Derek Hill. Statcast thinks that would be a homer in 21/30 parks anyway. No matter, the damage was done to make the score 6-1 before the Phillies came to bat again.
The Captain added another run with a homer in the bottom of the second (could have been more, but Lane Thomas had a TOOTBLAN on a Bobby Witt Jr fly ball that would have been a homer in 7/30 parks. Alas, it was a double play at Kauffman). That was homer #11 for Salvador Perez. The Royals kept going in the bottom of the third with a Loftin single and Tolbert double to push the lead to 8-1.
Finally, in the fourth inning, the Phillies gave up on Sánchez’s outing. Lane Thomas blasted a no-doubter homer to the left-center field gap and made it 9-1. Witt followed with a single and Perez a double, and thusly Sánchez was no more. Seth Johnson got the rest of the outs before it got worse that inning, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t get worse for the rest of the game for the Phillies. In the fifth, Tolbert got into even MORE of the action by hitting a home run of his own! His first of the season. He drove it into the left field visitor’s bullpen to make it 10-1.
They kept the singles parade going in the sixth inning with Witt, Loftin, and Marte hitting three singles to score one more, making it 11-1. In the seventh inning, the Royals used their *plate discipline* to take two walks before Perez got hit by a pitch and subbed out. With the bases loaded and one out, Cags plated another run by squeaking a ground ball in between the first and second basemen. Michael Massey scored on a subsequent groundout.
The Phillies called on Garrett Stubbs to throw absolute chimneys in the bottom of the eighth, and it went exactly as well as you would think. The Royals kept the singles parade going and added two more runs to finish off the scoring at 15 runs.
Cameron worked around a couple singles and a walk in the second inning to give up no runs (another bases loaded situation). Again, Cameron worked around two singles in the third but gave up no runs. He just kept working around baserunners and did not have his best stuff. He ended up making it only five innings with five walks. But he also got seven strikeouts and gave up only one run. It was good enough. He gutted out enough innings to give the bullpen a chance to hold a massive lead, which it did without giving up ANY runs! Steven Cruz, Beck Way, and Jose Cuas blanked the Phillies for four innings while the Royals piled on.
The Royals are now 37-54. The Phillies are 50-41. The Royals take this series against the Phillies and travel to New York and Baltimore for a road trip before the All-Star break.
