The Royals entered this homestand needing to go, by most accounting, 7-3 or 8-2 in order to really rejoin the playoff hunt. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when they lost the series finale against the Nationals, but with tonight’s win, they’re still 4-1 halfway through it and have a second shot at a sweep tomorrow.
Tonight was a very hot night in Kansas City, 94 degrees at first pitch, and the starting pitchers appeared to suffer the effects. They weren’t the only ones, either; Vinnie Pasquantino exited after striking out in the first inning due to a heat-related illness.
Michael Lorenzen made his triumphant return from the Injured List and, in some ways, picked up where he left off, pitching four scoreless innings. They were laborious innings, but they were scoreless and that’s what counts. Daniel Lynch IV gave the Royals a couple of scoreless innings before Bailey Falter made his bullpen debut for KC. He faced the minimum in the seventh with a strikeout and a double play, but ended up giving up a couple of runs in the eighth. Taylor Clarke closed it out with a scoreless ninth.
The offense got things going quickly. Very quickly. The second pitch they saw quickly.
Bobby Witt Jr. followed up with a single and a stolen base, but was stranded at second.
The Royals scored another run in the second inning. Randal Grichuk smashed a double down the left field line with one out. Nick Loftin walked, and Kyle Isbel hit a grounder to pitcher Sean Burke, and Burke threw it into centerfield to allow Grichuk to score.
The Royals scored again in the third inning. John Rave, batting in the third spot after replacing Vinnie Pasquantino in the field – Rave played left and starting left fielder Loftin moved to first – cranked his own home run to right.
The Royals got two more in the fifth on a two-run double by Maikel Garcia. They scored their final run in the bottom of the sixth with three straight singles from Adam Frazier, Grichuk, and Loftin.
John Rave finished the night two-for-three – he added a bunt single later. Grichuk and Loftin also went two-for-three, but they each also had a walk.
The baserunning continued to be awful. Kyle Isbel was caught napping on a lineout in the second inning and was doubled off. Maikel Garcia got picked off of second after his two-run double. And Tyler Tolbert was thrown out trying to steal second following Grichuk’s walk in the eighth inning. The Royals won, so it’s hard to complain too much, but you might wonder how many more runs they could have scored if they’d been smarter on the basepaths.
The Royals are now over .500 for the first time since June 10. The Guardians and Rangers both lost tonight, which means the Royals are now 1.5 games clear of the Rangers for second runner-up to the final Wild Card spot. They’re only 1.5 games back of the Guardians for first loser. The Yankees are up 12-7 over the Cardinals in the eighth inning as of this writing, so they’ll likely still be four back of the final Wild Card spot tomorrow morning.
Speaking of tomorrow, the Royals will go for the sweep against the White Sox – which would also mean they swept the White Sox in every home game against them this year after sweeping them in a four-game series back in May. Rookie Ryan Bergert will face off against Davis Martin. A sweep would go a long way to setting the Royals up for a successful homestand.