Lorenzo Cain’s single gave them the lead, and Eric Hosmer’s three-run shot put an exclamation point on another late rally for the Kansas City Royals in a 6-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
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It was only two weeks ago that the Kansas City Royals were two games under.500 and looking nothing like the club that won last year’s World Series.
Royals starter Ian Kennedy walked a season-high five, including the bases loaded in the fifth, but limited the Rays to three singles and one unearned run over six innings.
Cain’s single scored Alcides Escobar with the first run of the inning before Hosmer took a pitch from Erasmo Ramirez (6-3) deep to right-center for his 10th home run. Hosmer had three hits and drove in a pair of runs.
Hosmer, who is hitting.323 with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs, is the leader at first base with 871,222 votes. Royals 2B Whit Merrifield is 14-for-37 during his eight-game hitting streak and is batting.356 in his first 11 major-league contests. 2.
“Obviously we knew he was still sore, ” Cash said. “Drew didn’t have his best stuff”. Smyly is 3-1 with a 2.20 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in five career starts against the Royals, the other two coming in 2012.
In two career starts against the Rays, Duffy is 0-1 with a 3.75 ERA.
Then Kansas City broke it open with five runs in the fourth. “They told me it was a good time to get me out of the game, that they want to try to get me right”. In his past three starts, all losses, he has allowed 25 hits and 16 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings. I’m not trying to hit home runs.
Second baseman Omar Infante (.618 OPS), third baseman Mike Moustakas (.240 average, .801 OPS in 27 games), shortstop Alcides Escobar (.612 OPS), DH Kendrys Morales (.568 OPS) and outfielder Alex Gordon (.650 OPS) now are running with the second string at their positions. “I think on a check swing it kind of locked up a little bit”.
“I’m not going to say I ran into a good team, because I didn’t execute every single pitch”, Archer said. He came off the DL on Monday, threw 16 pitches Tuesday and returned to the DL.
Rays: Pearce left after seven innings with a right elbow irritation. Moustakas, who has a torn right ACL, will see Dr. James Andrews on Wednesday in Pensacola, Florida for a second opinion.
Royals: Eibner was carted from the field in the fifth inning with a left ankle sprain.
Rays SS Brad Miller, who has committed four errors in his past nine games including a throwing miscue in the sixth inning Sunday to end RHP Jake Odorizzi’s ideal game bid against the Yankees, did not start.
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Royals: LHP Danny Duffy has a 4.86 ERA this season at Kauffman Stadium and a 1.29 ERA on the road.
