Cardinals Surge Past Royals in Late Innings, Giving Kansas City Series-Opening Loss
Both teams logged double-digit hits, and the Royals led going into the eighth inning, but Kansas City faltered in the series opener at Kauffman Stadium against the Cardinals. St. Louis (60-57) was down 5-4 with six offensive outs left, and wound up with an 8-4 victory after scoring two runs each in the eighth and ninth innings.
The Cardinals got the long ball going early in the game, starting with a two-run bomb from catcher Willson Contreras off Michael Lorenzen. Designated hitter Alec Burleson, who is emerging as one of the National League's underrated power threats, added a solo of his own in the third inning, his 20th home run of the season.
Subsequently, the next five runs all went to Kansas City (64-53). Center fielder Kyle Isbel got the home team on the board for the first time with a third-inning RBI triple. Second baseman Michael Massey then scored Isbel and was himself sent home on a single to left field by All-Star catcher Salvador Perez. That sequence tied the contest.
Garcia then hit a run-scoring double to plate left fielder MJ Melendez in the fourth. In that same inning, Massey scored Garcia on a sacrifice fly. St. Louis got one more on the board in the top of the sixth, courtesy of an RBI groundout by Tommy Pham, who is in his second stint with the Cardinals after being traded to the Rays in 2018. He bounced around the league before landing with the White Sox, who traded him to St. Louis during deadline season.
Though that singular run plated by Pham was not the decider, it did get the Cardinal bats going again, and that paid dividends in the top of the eighth. Center fielder Victor Scott II, who's in action owing to an injury to Michael Siani, hit a two-run double for the lead. Contreras added another two-run home run in the ninth. When all was said and done, three-time World Series champion reliever Will Smith ended up with the loss.
The I-70 Series has only one more on the docket: a 6:10 p.m. CT start on Saturday. Kansas City has dropped four of its last six games after winning three of its first four to start the month of August. The projected pitching matchup is Michael Wacha vs. Andre Pallante. The two pitched in a doubleheader at Busch Stadium on July 10, but not against one another.
WILL MILLER