Jarrod Dyson opens game with gem as Royals sweep Rays with 8-3 win

Two batters into the game the Royals had their response to replacing the game’s best defensive outfielder.

Jarrod Dyson, sprinting to catch up to Grady Sizemore’s drive, made the over-the-shoulder grab just before hitting the fence.

The Rays’ John Jaso, running from first, believed like everybody else in Kauffman Stadium that the ball would elude Dyson.

This made it easy for Dyson to double up Jaso at first base and get the Royals off to a terrific start in an 8-3 victory before 32,308.

Alex Gordon and the platinum glove he won as baseball’s best defensive player last season will be sorely missed.

But the second double play started by Dyson in two games since replacing Gordon, who suffered a groin strain Wednesday and is lost for eight weeks, brought a sense of relief that one of the team’s defining characteristics — defense — will remain strong.

“I didn’t know the ball was going to travel that far,” Dyson said. “When he hit it I thought it was routine pop up. The wind kind of took it and I was able to make a play.”

It was the “most incredible” defensive play Royals manager Ned Yost said he’d seen from his team all season, and that’s a mouthful, considering some of the gems by Gordon and center fielder Lorenzo Cain.

The importance of the play was magnified by the pitching situation.

Yordano Ventura was making his first start since June 12, out for most of the month recovering from an ulnar nerve irritation in his right elbow that caused numbness in his fingers.

He had surrendered Jaso’s single and now Sizemore was threatening to give the Rays an early lead.

Instead, the Rays had two outs, nobody on.

“It was the play of the game for Ventura,” Yost said. “That ball gets over Dyson’s head and probably a run scores and you have a runner on second base. But Dyson makes the play and it settles Ventura down.”

And the stage was set for the Royals to take control, five pitches into their first inning.

Alcides Escobar slashed the first pitch he saw to left. Eric Hosmer broke his bat on a third-pitch double to right for an RBI, and Cain drove the first offering he saw 402 feet into the seats in left center.

Cain’s home run was his second in two games and eighth on the season, a career best. He didn’t finish the game, having been ejected from the dugout by home plate umpire Chris Segal in the eighth inning for arguing balls and strikes.

A week after scratching and clawing for runs, the Royals were on their way to another big offensive game. The team’s first four-game sweep of the Rays was shaped by the offense, which produced 33 runs and 52 hits. They hit .364 in the series, and no Rays pitcher was spared, including one of the American League’s best, Chris Archer, on Wednesday.

Thursday, when Omar Infante singled in the eighth, every starter had at least one base hit.

After the three-run first, the Royals looked to pile on in the second when Alex Rios’ tripled and scored on the first triple and RBI of Cheslor Cuthbert’s career.

But with Cuthbert at third and no outs, the Royals couldn’t bring him home, and trouble appeared brewing when Ventura wobbled in the fourth and couldn’t escape danger in the fifth. The Rays loaded the bases with none out, but Yost was determined to let Ventura pitch his way out.

“That was a character inning,” Yost said. “We got him a four-run lead, and he pitched himself in trouble. Now, let’s see you pitch yourself out it.”

Ventura walked in a run and two more scored on sacrifice flies to cut the Royals lead to 4-3.

But the Royals bats heated up again.

Cain was hit by a pitch after Hosmer’s solid single up the middle. Both moved up a base on a wild pitch.

Kendrys Morales brought home Hosmer with a fly to center, and Cain scored ahead of Salvador Perez’s team leading 14^th home run, a line shot into the Royals’ bullpen.

The Royals were on their way to their 50^th victory in 83 games and stand 17 over .500 for the first time in any season since the end of 1989.

Their four-game sweep was the first against any opponent since 2008, and perhaps no opponent better reflects the difference between the Royals as losers and winners.

Since the Rays’ first season in 1998, their best record against an AL opponent is against the Royals. But since 2012, their worst record against an AL opponent is against the Royals (5-18).

Yost was asked if, given the injury to Gordon and the absence of third baseman Mike Moustakas on bereavement leave, this was the Royals’ best series of the season.

“I don’t know, man. We’ve played good series all year,” Yost said. “We’re playing pretty good.”

Royals 8, Rays 3

This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Jarrod Dyson opens game with gem as Royals sweep Rays with 8-3 win."