Pitcher Chris Young collects three RBIs, shuts down Brewers in 7-2 Royals victory

The hoodie-clad denizens of the Kansas City dugout rose to greet a man who made history. Chris Young lumbered through the group as he accepted high-fives and fist-bumps. He had just cracked a sixth-inning single, his second of the game. In a 7-2 victory in which Young trounced the Brewers with his arm and his bat, he became the first Royals pitcher to collect three RBIs in a game since the advent of the designated hitter.

In truth, this period of time only measures the years after 1997, when interleague play arrived. The last Royals pitcher to match this feat was Steve Busby on Sept. 20, 1972.

While Young benefited from some good fortune at the plate, he yielded little to his hosts. He handcuffed the Brewers across seven scoreless innings, and left the game with humor when manager Ned Yost pulled him for a pinch hitter.

“I don’t see anybody else on this team with two hits and three RBIs getting pinch-hit for,” Young quipped to Yost. Then he watched Jarrod Dyson rake an RBI triple.

“Dys came in and made Ned look good,” Young said with a grin after the game. “I had no power in my bat.”

The mood was light inside the Royals clubhouse. The cheers of his teammates drowned out Young’s answers in his postgame interview — the team was enraptured by the last game of the NBA Finals. The players had reason to be loose, having come into Miller Park and thrashed the lowly Brewers.

Kansas City, 36-25, finished this trip with five victories in seven games. They swept Minnesota at the start. After two tough losses in St. Louis, the club rebounded with an 18-inning sweep at Miller Park. The two clubs repair to Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday to finish a home-and-home series.

Young, 6-2 with a 1.98 ERA, held the Brewers to five hits. He did not allow a runner to reach third base. He has logged 15 2/3 scoreless innnings in his last two starts.

“It’s that mystical deception, I guess,” Yost said. “Nobody can hit him.”

Kelvin Herrera gave up a run in the eighth. Scooter Gennett hit a home run against Luke Hochevar in the ninth. The two runs did not alter the outcome.

Lorenzo Cain launched a two-run homer for the second time in two games against his former club. Mike Moustakas roped three more hits, including a solo shot in the seventh. In between the two homers, Young carried the offensive load.

The lineup picked up where it finished on Monday. Alcides Escobar was thrown out trying to stretch a leadoff single into a double, but Moustakas followed him with a pop-up that fell in shallow left field. Brewers third baseman Aramis Ramirez was pulled toward the dirt, and in no position to field the ball.

So there was a runner at first when Cain stepped in. Milwaukee starter Matt Garza opened with three straight balls. Cain took a fastball down the middle for one called strike. He did not use such discretion the next time. He blasted the 3-1 pitch over the left-field fence.

“You always want to show up against the team that drafted you, and traded you,” Cain said. “So I definitely wanted to show up and go out there and play some great baseball.”

Midway through last week, Young asked the scouting department for reports on both the Brewers and the Cardinals. He was scheduled to start on Monday in Milwaukee, but he knew Jason Vargas might be headed to the disabled list. The Royals shut down Vargas on Friday and pitching coach Dave Eiland told Young to prepare to pitch on Sunday at Busch Stadium.

Then the rain wiped out Young’s opportunity. The team gave him an extra day to review video of the Milwaukee hitters. In his last outing, Young lasted 6 2/3 innings before giving up his first hit. On Tuesday, he kept Milwaukee hitless for the game’s first eight outs.

“The last two starts, I felt like fastball command was very good,” Young said. “For me, that’s very important. If I can throw my fastball where I want, it helps.”

Outfielder Shane Peterson rolled a single through the middle off Young in the third. Two batters later, outfielder Gerardo Parra left a tidy bunt along the third-base line for another single. Into the box stepped catcher Jonathan Lucroy. Young fired a 1-1 fastball and Lucroy powered it to center field, Cain’s domain.

Cain spent six years trying to reach this stadium. The Brewers plucked him out of the Florida Panhandle in 2004. He toiled in their minor-league system until his big-league debut in 2010. The Royals targeted Cain, along with Escobar and pitcher Jake Odorizzi, when they dealt ace Zack Greinke that winter.

Greinke helped Milwaukee reached the National League Championship Series in 2011. The downside is Brewers fans this week watched Cain and Escobar catalyze the Kansas City offense and fortify its defense. Now thousands of eyes tracked Cain as he approached the wall.

Cain swiveled his hips and spun into position. He jumped as he made the grab. His back collided with the wall. The crowd gasped, and Cain landed on his feet. He winced a few times as he trotted to the dugout. Yost removed him as a precaution for the last two innings. Cain indicated he felt sore, but expected to be able to play on Wednesday.

“I felt it right away,” Cain said. “It definitely got worse as the game went on.”

When Young next emerged onto the diamond, he wore batting gloves and a helmet. There were two runners in scoring position after singles by Alex Gordon and Omar Infante. Brewers manager Craig Counsell ordered his infielders to approach the plate. The positioning backfired.

Young did not hesitate when Garza opted for a first-pitch fastball. He cracked the ball downward, where it bounced off the plate and floated past shortstop Jean Segura. With one swing, Young became the 16th Royal in history to record a multi-RBI game.

“You get lucky and run into a couple from time to time,” Young said. “Tonight was just one of those nights.”

He would soon reach a few more milestones. With two outs in the sixth, Infante raked a double. He would finish the night with three knocks, giving him five in the past two days. In his 15 games leading up to Monday, he managed only five hits.

As Infante showed signs of life, Young approached another at-bat. Garza fed him a fastball at the belt. Young punched it into right for an opposite-field single and his third RBI.

“The guys picked me up,” Young said. “And made it look easy.”

Royals 7, Brewers 2

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a-tripled for Young in the 8th. b-singled for Knebel in the 8th. c-grounded out for Herrera in the 9th.

LOB: Kansas City 9, Milwaukee 6. 2B: Infante (13), Ramirez (12). 3B: Dyson (3). HR: Cain (6), off Garza; Moustakas (6), off Garza; Gennett (2), off Hochevar. RBIs: Moustakas (22), Cain 2 (28), Young 3 (3), Dyson (3), Lucroy (9), Gennett (6). SB: Parra (2). S: Garza.

Runners left in scoring position: Kansas City 4 (Escobar, Perez, Moustakas, Rios); Milwaukee 3 (Lucroy, Peterson, Lind). RISP: Kansas City 2 for 10; Milwaukee 3 for 8. Runners moved up: Hosmer, Gordon. GIDP: Lind. DP: Kansas City 1 (Infante, Escobar, Hosmer).

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Inherited runners-scored: Knebel 1-0.

Umpires: Home, Chris Guccione; First, Clint Fagan; Second, Jeff Nelson; Third, Laz Diaz. Time: 2:51. Att: 27,740.

This story was originally published June 16, 2015 at 10:05 PM with the headline "Pitcher Chris Young collects three RBIs, shuts down Brewers in 7-2 Royals victory."