The Kansas City Royals wrapped up their east coast road trip in a huge way, as they slugged their way to an 11-6 victory in Baltimore. The Royals took 2 of 3 in Baltimore, 4 of 6 on the season, and have won 11 of their last 13 games now to put them at 19-16 on the season. It was also a 5-1 road trip for the boys in blue.
Maikel Garcia started the home run derby with a solo shot to left to lead off the second inning.
Jackson Holliday would answer with one of his own in the bottom half of the inning. A two out RBI double in the bottom of the third from Adley Rutschman put the O’s in front 2-1.
After a two out double from Hunter Renfroe put runners on second and third, Drew Waters worked back from an 0-2 count to get it to 3-2. He would then hit an opposite field, two run single to give the Royals a 3-2 lead. But once again, Holliday would homer for the Orioles to tie the game in the bottom half of the inning.
However, Jonathan India would lead off the fifth with his first homer in a Royals uniform, breaking the tie. Cedric Mullins and Ryan O’Hearn would hit a pair of solo homers in the bottom of the fifth to put Baltimore back in front 5-4. Lorenzen would leave after 4.2 innings, giving up 7 hits (4 solo homers), 1 walk, 5 earned runs and 5 strikeouts.
Garcia would hit his second leadoff homer on the day to tie the game at 5 again. With his second homer, it was another multi-hit game for him. When he has a multi-hit game, the Royals are now 11-0. He would later tack on another single, to have back-to-back 3 hit games. Garcia was 14-24 on the road trip.
Steven Cruz got the last out of the fifth inning and would get the first out of the sixth before giving way to Angel Zerpa. The Royals would turn an incredible 6-4-3 double play to end the inning behind him.
Tied at 5 in the 7th, Bobby Witt Jr. picked up his first hit of the series, and it was a go-ahead solo homer. Vinnie Pasquantino would follow it up with a home run of his own to put the Royals up 7-5.
Zerpa would come back for the 7th, hit the first batter before getting a line out to center, a groundout to first and flyout to right. An impressive first 5 outs from Zerpa.
In the 8th inning, recently called up Luke Maile, catching today to give Fermin a day off, and Perez only DH’ing with that hip soreness, picked up his first hit as a Royal and it was a solo homer as well. Witt would later double in another run to put the Royals up 9-5. The Maile homer was the 10th homer of the game, all solo shots.
Zerpa, only throwing 12 pitches to get 5 outs, would start the 8th, but surrender a double, RBI single and another single before departing. Overall, a mixed result day for Zerpa. Erceg would come in, runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out in a 9-6 ballgame.
Facing the bottom third of the O’s lineup, he would get an infield fly popout, fielder’s choice, and line out to center to end the comeback threat.
In the top of the 9th, Perez would single, before Michael Massey hit his first homer on the season to give the Royals an 11-6 lead. It was the 11th homer of the day, first one not a solo homer. It was the 7th on the day for the Royals alone, setting a new franchise record for most in a single game.
Taylor Clarke would throw a scoreless ninth to close it out. The Royals return home to start a 4-game set against the Chicago White Sox at 6:40 p.m. CT tomorrow night. Cole Ragans is expected to start.
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