Royals win series with 7-5 win over Cardinals, split season series

By MATT PIKE

Cole Ragans struggled in his return from the injured list, giving up five runs in three innings, but the offense picked him up and the Kansas City Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5, splitting a Thursday doubleheader, and winning the series at Busch Stadium. 

Kansas City did hold a lead early for Ragans however, scoring in the first inning as Maikel Garcia hit a two run home run to right field, driving in Bobby Witt Jr for the early lead.  The Cardinals cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning, Willson Contreras singling to score Lars Nootbaar to put the Cardinals down 2-1. 

Kansas City extended their lead in the third inning, starting with Freddy Fermin leading off the inning with a solo home run.  Jonathan India singled and Garcia doubled, before Vinnie Pasquantino grounded out to score India, followed by a Salvador Perez single that drove in Garcia to push the Royals lead to 5-1. 

In the bottom half of the inning though, the Cardinals stormed back to tie up the game, scoring four runs as Contreras continued his day of terror against Kansas City, driving in more runs, hitting an RBI double and scoring Masyn Winn and Brendan Donovan. Later in the inning, Nolan Arenado delivered the tying blow, hitting a two run home run to left field, scoring Contreras along with himself, and knotting the game up at 5-5. 

Leading off the fourth inning, Mark Canha hit his third double of the season for Kansas City, and scored soon after as Nick Loftin followed with his third double since being called up from Triple A Omaha, giving the Royals the lead back.  The lead was extended in the fifth, as Kansas City scored the final run in the fifth, Perez singling to drive in Garcia. 

Angel Zerpa, who came on in the fourth inning, gave up just one hit in relief of Ragans, earning the win and improving to 3-0 on the season, striking out four batters before he would be replaced by Steven Cruz.  Cruz also gave up one hit, and also struck out four, and Carlos Estévez came on in the ninth inning, after surrendering a walk off hit in the opener to the day, but in the nightcap, Estévez recorded a 1-2-3 inning, earning his 18th save of the season, and the 100th save of his career. 

For the Cardinals, Matthew Liberatore had another rough outing, taking the loss and falling to 3-5 on the season, giving up seven runs over four innings on eight hits, striking out two and walking one.  

At the plate, the Royals saw Garcia (2-3, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 R’s, 2 BBs, 2 SB), Perez (2-5, 2 RBI), and Loftin (2-4, 1 RBI) lead the way hitting.  The Cardinals were led by Contreras (2-4, 3 RBI, 1 R) and Arenado (2-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 R).

With the win, the Royals and Cardinals split the I-70 series on the season.  The Cardinals won two of three in Kansas City, while the Royals won two of three in St. Louis.  

Kansas City will stay on the road next, while St. Louis will stay at home.  Kansas City will next head to Chicago for an AL Central matchup with the White Sox tomorrow.  Seth Lugo (3-5, 3.45 ERA) will take the mound against Davis Martin (2-6, 3.67 ERA).  First pitch will be at 6:40pm, pregame coverage starting at 6 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).

St. Louis will host the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Sonny Gray (6-1, 3.65 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Justin Wrobleski (1-1, 8.00 ERA) for the Dodgers.  First pitch is at 7:15pm, pregame will be joined at 7:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).

You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.