By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals bats were clicking on all cylinders on way to their second series sweep of the season, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 8-2 on Thursday afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Tampa Bay did strike first however against Royals starter Seth Lugo in the first inning, Yandy Díaz hitting a solo home run to center field. It’s the second game in a row Díaz made solid contact in his first at bat of the game, after taking Noah Cameron nearly deep on Wednesday, but was robbed of a home run by Hunter Renfroe.
Kansas City tied the game up in the fourth inning, a sacrifice fly by Michael Massey scoring Maikel Garcia, but the game really turned around in the fifth inning when Bobby Witt Jr extended his hitting streak to 22 games with a two run home run, driving in Freddy Fermin, and putting the Royals up 3-1. Back to back doubles by Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez extended the lead, also in the fifth.
Another three run frame in the sixth inning continued pushing Kansas City farther ahead. Walks to Mark Cahna and Jonathan India and a single by Fermin loaded the bases, before Witt Jr drove in a third run being hit by a pitch. A single by Pasquantino drove in the final two runs of the inning, scoring Fermin and India. Cavan Biggio pinch hit for Perez, who was removed with left hip soreness the Royals announced, and struck out to end the inning.
The Rays added their final run in the bottom half of the sixth inning with an RBI single from Jonathan Aranda, driving in Chandler Simpson, but Kansas City struck again later in the game adding their last run in the eighth inning, also with an RBI single from Garcia to score India who walked to open the inning.
Lugo put together a quality start to earn the win, improving to 3-3, pitching six innings and giving up two runs on five hits, striking out five. Garcia led the way hitting, going 3-5 with one RBI. Fermin (2-5), Waters (2-5), Pasquantino (2-6, 2 RBIs), and Witt Jr (1-3, 3 RBIs, 2 BBs) also paced the offense.
Kansas City now travels Baltimore to face the Orioles tomorrow. Michael Wacha is scheduled to open the series for the Royals against Dean Kremer for Baltimore. First pitch is at 6:05pm, pregame coverage begins at 5:30 on KFEQ (680AAM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
