A day after ending the losing streak, Kansas City got into a back-and-forth battle with Baltimore. The scoring started early with both teams getting a first inning bomb. Pete Alonso hit an opposite field home run for Baltimore and Vinnie crushed one for the Royals. Baltimore’s was worth two though, and so they lead 2-1 at the end of the first frame.
In the 4th inning, Vinnie lead off the inning with a double to the right field corner. Carter Jensen singled to score him and tie the game up. Jac Caglianone singled to right two batters later, which got Jensen to third. Then Lane Thomas got him home and got the Royals the lead with an RBI single of his own.
Meanwhile, Wacha was cruising after giving up the Alonso shot in the first. Through 5 innings he had given up just 4 hits and 1 walk without even getting to 70 pitches. It looked like he might get deep in the game, but then it fell apart. The 6th started with Beavers flyout to Loftin? That’s when we learned Garcia had exited the game, more on that later. Then a four pitch walk put Alonso on, which was followed by three consecutive singles. Both Basallo and Jackson hit weak flares, but they made it far enough into the outfield to drop and all of a sudden, it was 5 – 3 Baltimore with Wacha heading to the showers. Eli Morgan came in to stop the bleeding but gave up yet another weak single followed by a very hard hit that cleared the fence for Coby Mayo’s second 3-run homer in as many days. It was 8-3 and looking like another game had slipped out of Kansas City’s hands.
The Royals fought back in their half of the 6th. Jensen led the inning with a home run to center and Massey followed that with a double to right. Chris Bassitt also failed to get through the 6th. Cags and Thomas both made outs, though Massey did move to third on Jac’s groundout up the middle. Then Kyle Isbel ripped a home run right down the first baseline to put the game at 8-6. So, despite the Orioles batting through the lineup in the top half, the Royals were right back in the game.
Baltimore tried to score again in the 9th when Dylan Beavers rapped a double to left center field. It was looking like a double with maybe in RBI, but Thomas fielded and hit the cutoff man. Bobby Witt Jr. then gunned it home in time to get Taylor Ward before he scored an insurance run. The Royals had one more chance to go score at least two runs. They would face Anthony Nunez since Baltimore’s closer was not available.
It looked like Nunez was going to go one, two, three. Lane Thomas flied out, Isbel struck out, and then Loftin grounded to third, but Mayo made a poor throw and Loftin went to first. Bobby Witt Jr. came up representing the tying run. But he struck out on a check swing, and that was that.
This puts the Royals back in the L column, but the bats looked solid for the second day in a row. I am hopeful that they are on the right track. That track had better lead to more wins than losses starting very soon before this season starts to get away from them.