By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Royals offense struggled in the middle game of their weekend series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, as the D-Backs evened up the series winning 7-1 on Saturday afternoon at Chase Field.
The Diamondbacks started the scoring in the third inning on back to back RBI singles, the first by Josh Naylor, driving in Geraldo Perdomo, followed by Eugenio Suárez bringing in Pavin Smith. Another two runs scored in the fifth inning, again with Perdomo and Smith coming across home plate on a double by Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
Kansas City’s lone run came in the sixth inning, an RBI single by Bobby Witt Jr driving in Freddy Fermin, and then in the seventh inning the Diamondbacks got that run back as following a triple, Gourriel Jr scored on a double by James McCann. Randal Grichuk’s two run home run in the eighth inning, scoring Blaze Alexander, put the final two runs on for Arizona.
Michael Wacha took the loss for Kansas City, falling to 4-9 on the season, pitching four innings and giving up four runs on four hits while striking out four and walking four. At the plate, Fermin was 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored as the Royals had five hits on the day.
Kansas City and Arizona wrap up their series tomorrow. Michael Lorenzen (4-8, 4.95 ERA) takes the mound for the Royals against Anthony DeSclafani (0-0, 4.82 ERA) for the Diamondbacks. First pitch is at 3:10pm, pregame coverage starts at 2:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.
