Maikel Garcia is the MVP of the team right now. Today the Royals had a bunch of guys’ fly balls find open spots, but Garcia is continuing to hit the ball hard and produce runs.
A huge eighth inning blew open what was a very close game up to that point. Garcia is leading the offense and more than earning his spot after kinda being challenged initially with India earning the opening day third base start. Seth Lugo did not strike out a lot of guys but was pretty efficient through six innings.
The Royals opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. Bobby Witt Jr legged out an infield single down the third base line and remained there until Salvador Perez came to bat. Salvy lofted a fly ball into roughly left-center field. Heston Kjerstad stared into the abyss of the misty, gray Kansas City sky and basically said “no”. He could not locate the ball, and it dropped a few feet away from him. Bobby came around to score and Salvy was given a double. Michael Massey popped a ground ball single just past the second baseman afterward, but Salvy was held at third. I might have sent him? Maybe? Cavan Biggio weakly grounded out the end the threat though.
Unfortunately, the Orioles immediately responded in the top of the second. Ryan O’Hearn walked to lead off the inning (if I remember correctly, he was down 0-2 in the count). Prospective Royals free agent outfield target Tyler O’Neill followed with a double. Kjerstad singled to Jonathan India in left field, scoring O’Hearn easily. India quickly unleashed a throw home to get O’Neill in a close play at the plate. The Orioles challenged, but the out call stood after replay review. I think I agree with other thoughts I saw – had O’Neill slid, he would have been safe. India’s throw was a little off target. Salvy made a great play to catch the ball on the foul side of the line and rapidly tag O’Neill.
But then the Royals had a defensive miscue of their own. Maikel Garcia fielded a ground ball behind third base and bounced a throw to Vinnie Pasquantino, who couldn’t make the pick. Kjerstad scored, giving the Orioles the lead 2-1.
In the fourth inning, the Orioles had another error that kicked off some scoring. Gunnar Henderson charged hard on a Perez grounder but couldn’t field it; it bounced off his glove and into the outfield. Biggio singled on a short fly ball to right field, and a wild pitch moved both guys into scoring position. Garcia hit a grounder up the middle to score both guys and retake the lead, 3-2. With two outs, Kyle Isbel lofted a fly ball into right field, and once again it dropped to the ground to move Garcia to third. India skied a fly ball into left field, but sadly this time Kjerstad located the ball and caught it to end the scoring threat.
The middle innings proceeded mostly uneventfully. After the second inning, Lugo did not allow any more runs and made it all the way through six full innings with only two strikeouts. Hunter Harvey owned the seventh with two strikeouts.
The Royals turned the most awkward-looking double play in the eighth with Lucas Erceg on the mound. Erceg fielded a comebacker and turned and threw to Witt Jr and second, who had to contort a little to catch the ball and drag his foot across the bag for the out. He was in a weird position to throw to first – he could not get anything from his hips due to the awkward positioning on his tippie toes – but he managed to get enough on the throw to get Adley Rutschman for the double play.
The eighth inning put the game out of reach.
Mark Canha roped a double, and Garcia kept his bat chugging with a hard grounder down the third base line for a double….and then he stole third! MJ Melendez got hit by a pitch to get to first, which brought up Isbel. He bunted hard down the first base line, but Garcia was too fast and avoided a tag relatively easily to make it 5-2.
After a Tyler Tolbert groundout moved Melendez and Isbel to third and second, the Orioles intentionally walked Witt Jr to load the bases for Vinnie. The Pasquatch lofted a fly ball down the right field line, but no Orioles fielder was close enough to make a play on the thing. Once again, a lazy fly ball found a landing spot. Vinnie got a single, but all three runners scored because Bobby was flying around the bases with two outs and the Orioles threw to second base for some reason. That made it 8-2.
Chris Stratton came on to finish the game in the ninth. The bullpen overall was fantastic. Love to see it. Outstanding pitching from the Royals tonight.
Despite the wet and cold and just garbage weather, the guys still managed to dump the Gatorade all over Maikel during his postgame interview. Get that man into a hot shower.
The 3-4 Royals will play the 3-5 Orioles again tomorrow. It’s a 3:10pm US Central game time. You can watch on FanDuel Sports Kansas City or listen on 96.5 FM The Fan.
