Royals rally to take lead in St. Louis and Rosenthal closes door on the Cardinals
Kansas City Royals closer Trevor Rosenthal had faced every team in the majors except one, the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals drafted him 2009 and his first six seasons in the majors came in a Cardinals uniform.
Rosenthal’s 65 saves at Busch Stadium entering Tuesday night were the most in the ballpark’s history. Now, he has one there as a visiting pitcher.
Rosenthal, a Lee’s Summit native, got Paul Goldschmidt to bounce a game-ending ground ball to shortstop with the tying run at third base and recorded his seventh save in seven tries this season to secure a 5-4 win against the Cardinals in the second game of the three-game I-70 series in St. Louis.
The Royals (12-18) rallied to win for the first time this season after having trailed going into the sixth inning. They’d been 0-16 in previous tries.
“I just try to use the experiences that I’ve had here to my advantage,” Rosenthal said of pitching in his old stomping grounds. “Just being comfortable out there, the visual of being on that mound. I’ve been on that mound so many times.”
The Royals are the only team in the majors without a blown save this season.
Rosenthal did find himself in a couple white-knuckle moments in the ninth inning. After a strikeout, his slider to Harrison Bader stayed up just enough for him to swat a triple into center field.
After Rosenthal hit Kolten Wong with a pitch to put the go ahead run on base, he struck out Tommy Edman on a changeup for the second out to set up his match-up with Goldschmidt.
Rosenthal revealed in postgame that he’d actually faced Edman during the break in spring training while both were training for the restart of spring training.
“I actually faced Edman during the quarantine in St. Charles,” Rosenthal said. “I think that kind of helped me out there. I had a nice plan to attack him. That’s kind of fun how that all ended up playing out, for me at least — not for him.”
The Royals took the lead thanks to Ryan McBroom’s eighth-inning RBI single. The roller had just enough steam to sneak through the left side of the infield and into left field. It slowed in the outfield grass and allowed Hunter Dozier to score the go-ahead run from second base with two outs.
Lately, the Royals have failed to get the critical hit needed with men on base. In the three-game losing streak prior to Tuesday’s win, they’d stranded 33 men on base.
“Once you let that creep in your head, you’re toast,” McBroom said of the recent struggles. “Once you start thinking about I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that, we haven’t done this previously, you’re done. I’ve been in that situation hundreds of times. You just have to take it as another spot. You can’t put too much pressure on yourself. Get a good pitch to hit, which I did, and score the run. It’s pretty simple.”
The Cardinals nearly tied the score in the bottom half of the inning when Yadier Molina doubled off the left-center field, but the relay throw from left fielder Whit Merrifield to shortstop Adalberto Mondesi to catcher Cam Gallagher cut down Paul DeJong who was at first base but running on the pitch.
Merrifield got rid of the ball quickly and accurately, and Mondesi made a strong one-hop throw on the money to Gallagher who applied the tag to preserve the one-run lead.
“Whit did a great job of getting the ball in quick,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “He played the wall really well in his first inning being in left field. He let Mondi be Mondi. All day long he was just doing a terrific job, making plays and trusting his instincts. It’s fun to watch. We’ve got to keep talking about how he changes the game even when he’s not getting the multi-hit games.”
McBroom, who didn’t play in the series opener on Monday night, went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. Ryan O’Hearn went 3 for 4 with his first home run of the season, two RBIs and two runs scored. Dozier scored a pair of runs.
Royals starting pitcher Matt Harvey, making his second appearance in a major-league game since July 2019, allowed four runs on five hits and two walks. All four runs came in the third inning.
The bullpen contingent of Jake Newberry, Jesse Hahn, Ian Kenned, Josh Staumont, Scott Barlow and Rosenthal combined for 6 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 10:46 PM.
