After a late start due to stormy weather, the Royals found a couple of big home runs from Carter Jensen and Bobby Witt to take the game from Arizona 5-2.
Daniel Lynch has had some significant struggles in the first inning after returning to a starting role for the first time in several years. That was true again today. However, he got some help and got out without surrendering any runs. Nick Loftin with second and third and one out got a hard hit ground ball from Nolan Arenado and threw out the lead
runner at home on a nice defensive play. That still left first and third with an out to go, which Daniel took care of himself on a groundball comebacker.
In the bottom of the second, the Royals got their first real threat going against Zac Gallen. John Rave hit one just hard enough to the right side to find the Bermuda Triangle between pitcher, second, and first and was moved to second when Kyle Isbel slapped a first pitch single into center. Then Rave decided to steal third and created the first run of the game thanks to James McCann’s errant throw into left field. KC added a second run to begin the 3rd inning when Carter Jensen blasted a ball into the right field fountains.
The 2-0 lead did not last long. Lynch gave Nolan Arenado a pitch he liked to start the 4th and he hit it a long way into the left field bleachers to cut the lead in half. Arizona then added another in the 5th after a Jordan Lawlar leadoff single set up a bit of a strange sequence. Lars Nootbaar was second up for the inning and bunted what looked like a nice single down the third base line. However, Daniel Lynch somehow got it, whipped around, and threw a strike to first. He tweaked something getting that out and the trainers came out to check on him, but Lynch remained in the game. Ildemaro Vargas then flew out to right with what looked like a harmless pop-up. There seemed to be some miscommunication on who was going to catch it between Isbel and Rave with Rave eventually breaking for it late and having to dive and roll to get it. That allowed Lawlar to tag up and move to third. Ketel Marte was next up and singled through the left side to tie the game 2-2. I am not sure Lawlar could have scored on that had he been at second, so that outfield issue may have cost them a run.
It was probably Lynch’s best start this season. He made it 5 innings for the first time with 4H, 2BB, 3K, and 2ER. There were some really good defensive plays and some hard it balls at people that might be making that line better than it really is. He did do a decent job though.
Arizona wanted to come back in the 5th and get the shutdown inning after getting the game evened up. Michael Soroka took the ball out of their pen to start the inning and struck out Kyle Isbel to start things off. Isaac Collins finally ended his 0-24 hitless streak by getting one through the left side for a single. That was followed by a Jensen walk, and the Royals were cooking again. Bobby Witt Jr. turned on a first pitch strike for the second Royal home run of the night to grab the lead back at 5-2.
He got a little under it, but at 104 MPH off the bat it was enough to arc over the fence.
Soroka stuck around for four innings all the way through the eighth and had no more problems while the Royals bullpen passed the ball from Jose Cuas to Anthony Gose to Craig Kimbrel and got through the 6th, 7th, and 8th with the 3-run lead intact. Partly it was defense again as Kimbrel got a nice double play against Tawa who hit a sharp grounder to third where Loftin snared it and sent to second where it was relayed to first in time to help get out of that inning.
Nate Pearson got the save opportunity for the third time since joining the Royals. He immediately got into trouble. Lawler hit a groundball up the middle to start the 9th inning with a single followed by a Lars Nootbaar walk to bring the tying run to the plate with no outs. That enticed Torey Lovullo to pinch hit with Gabriel Moreno instead of Vargas. Pearson got a low strike, a high strike, and swinging strike up to take out Moreno. His command was not good the first two batters but looked great in this third matchup. Marte was next up and Pearson got him to hit a low chopper to the right side for a double play and a Kansas City victory.
It was a nice win to salvage one from this series. Good defense and mostly solid pitching along with a couple of big hits. That sounds like exactly what you would draw up as a winning formula in baseball. Royals take one of three with Arizona in town and will head to Boston for three against the Sox to finish out the week after an off day tomorrow.
