Carlos Martinez (7-5 3.02 ERA) gets the nod for the Cardinals tonight and while he has been lights out as of late the Cards have lost his last two starts not giving him much run support. Stephen Piscotty led off with a double. The break came at an unfortunate time for the 25-year-old, who was dominant in his previous two outings, allowing one run over 13 1/3 innings while compiling 15 strikeouts in back-to-back wins.
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The Royals answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning and were aided by a fielding error on right fielder Piscotty.
Wacha won for the first time in almost two months his last time out against the Cubs. The Cardinals are a ideal 6-0 in Michael Wacha’s last 6 starts on 5 days of rest. The Royals are 10-26 their last 36 home games in this series.
There have been plenty of times over the years when Royals pitcher Danny Duffy would give up a first-inning home run, or fall into a big early hole, and it would cause everything else to slowly unravel.
Brandon Moss followed with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on Adam’s sacrifice fly. He retired his final seven batters, with nobody getting past second after the first inning. “We’ll send him in to get him checked out a little more thoroughly, but right now it just looks like he’s got a goose egg over his eye”, manager Mike Matheny said. “We capitalized in the second inning”, Yost said. The blurriness subsided, but after the game Diaz – who leads the Cardinals with a.316 batting average – still seemed rattled as he spoke, a nasty shiner over his eye.
Plate umpire Tim Timmons tossed Royals RHP Edinson Volquez from the bench during the third inning, though it was unclear what prompted the ejection. “We made it exciting in the ninth inning, but couldn’t make anything happen”. He passed the concussion protocol tests and there was no fracture, but will miss a few games until the swelling subsides. Volquez meanwhile is 7-7 with a 5.24 mark and while he is having a disappointing season he remains an integral part of the KC rotation and in a one game show down he can certainly be counted on to lead his team to victory. C Eric Fryer, who hit.368 in 38 at-bats, was designated for assignment. He recovered to pitch three breezy innings after that, but by then, the damage was largely irreversible. RHP Alex Reyes and C Carson Kelly will represent the Cardinals.
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The series shifts to St. Louis for games on Wednesday and Thursday evening.
