By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals avoided being swept by their cross state rivals in the first half of the I-70 series in Kansas City at Kauffman Stadium, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 in Sunday’s finale.
Royals starter Michael Wacha entered the day 4-0 in four starts against his former team, and did his part to hold the Cardinals in check, striking out five batters through the first three innings. St. Louis though took the lead first, a home run from Alec Burleson in the top of the fourth inning putting the Redbirds up 1-0.
Wacha bounced back, getting Yohel Pozo to ground out and striking out Victor Scott to end the inning, and the Royals tied up the game in the bottom half of the inning. Hunter Renfroe doubled to lead off the inning, and while it looked like Kansas City might do nothing with it after back to back outs by Freddy Fermin and Michael Massey, Darion Blanco got his first hit of the season, a double to right field to tie up the game scoring Renfroe.
Wacha ended up with a no decision on the day, being replaced by John Schreiber in the sixth inning. Schreiber and Daniel Lynch combined to finish the sixth, and Lynch was replaced by Lucas Erceg in the seventh after recording one out. In the bottom half of the seventh, Kansas city took the lead back, Drew Waters leading off with a pinch hit triple, before scoring on a single by Maikel Garcia.
Erceg remained on to pitch the eighth, and after the Royals got no runs in the bottom of the inning, Carlos Estévez came on in the ninth for the save. Estévez gave up a double to Brendan Donovan, but that was it on way to his 13th save of the season.
Erceg earned his first win as a Royal, pitching 1 2/3 innings of relief, giving up one hit, walking one, and striking out one. Chris Roycroft took the loss in relief for St. Louis. At the plate, Donovan led the Cardinals going 4-5. Salvador Perez was 2-4 as the only Royal with multiple hits.
Kansas City now heads to the west coast for a series with San Francisco. Kris Bubic (4-2, 1.66 ERA) takes the mound for the Royals against Robbie Ray (6-0, 3.04 ERA) for the Giants. first pitch is at 8:45pm, pregame coverage begins at 8 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
St. Louis meanwhile will return to Busch Stadium to take on Detroit. Sonny Gray (4-1, 4.50 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals while the Tigers starter is currently listed as TBD. First pitch is at 6:45pm, pregame will be joined at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
