Kansas City Royals’ offense ignites late in a series-clinching win over Brewers
A 442-foot home run by 6-foot-4, 235-pound slugger Jorge Soler complemented by a 2-foot bunt from 5-foot-11, 180-pound middle infielder Nicky Lopez flipped the game in the seventh inning and helped send the Kansas City Royals into their off-day victorious.
The Royals tacked on two insurance runs in the eighth inning and leaned on the bullpen duo of Greg Holland and Josh Staumont to close out the Milwaukee Brewers on their way to their 20th victory of the season, a 6-4 win Wednesday night in front of an announced 8,950 at rain-soaked Kauffman Stadium.
Michael A. Taylor and Soler each hit their fourth home run of the season, while Kelvin Gutierrez had two hits.
The Royals (20-22) swept the two-game interleague set and they’ve won three of their last four and four of six.
The last four wins have come in games that featured opposing starting pitchers Lucas Giolito and Carlos Rodón of the Chicago White Sox as well as Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes of the Brewers. That group combined for an 11-7 record and 2.10 ERA.
“The last five pitchers we’ve faced, to watch how our team has just dug in and fought — that to me is fun baseball to watch,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “This to me is what we saw for an entire month.”
Mathey alluded to the Royals having compiled the best record in the majors in April before an 11-game losing streak that started on May 2.
Soler’s homer tied the score at the start of the seventh inning and unceremoniously welcomed Brewers relief pitcher J.P. Feyereisen to the game after Burnes held the Royals to two runs over six innings.
Gutierrez followed Soler’s homer with a single, and Michael A. Taylor walked to give the Royals two men on with no outs. Cam Gallagher’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third. Lopez’s deftly executed squeeze bunt allowed Jarrod Dyson, who pinch ran for Gutierrez, to score from third base.
“Those were huge runs after Jorge gives us a chance by just wowing us,” Matheny said. “When he gets into one, it’s as impressive as maybe anybody in the league.”
Dyson stole second base in the inning and passed Frank White for fifth place on the Royals’ career stolen base list with his 179th steal for Kansas City.
The Royals two runs in the eighth came courtesy of a Hanser Alberto RBI single to drive in Salvador Perez and a wild pitch that allowed Alberto to score from third.
They generated offense in multiple ways in the seventh and eighth.
“I think that’s very important for us because you’re not always going to be able to hit four or five home runs a game,” Taylor said. “So being able to manufacture runs is huge, especially when you get late in the season. We have the ability to do that, not only put together good at-bats and work a walk but hit-and-run, steal bases, move runners. There’s a lot of ways we can put runs on the board.”
Royals starting pitcher Brad Keller tossed 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on eight hits and one walk. He struck out four, and he left the game with the score tied and a runner on third.
“I felt like I commanded on the inner half of the plate a lot better than I have in my last few starts,” Keller said. “Noticed pretty early, after the first inning, that they were looking away. I started commanding in and got a lot of weak contact, a lot of ground balls. I’m coming back to how I pitch. I felt like my slider was really sharp today. Just another step.”
Keller gave up a run in the first inning on a two-out RBI single looped softly over the infield and into left field by Omar Narvaez to give the Brewers (21-22) an early edge.
The Royals took a 2-1 lead on Taylor’s home run, a two-run blast to left-center field with two outs. Taylor’s 437-foot shot came after Gutierrez gave the Royals their first hit of the day with a single to left field.
Burnes held opponents to one run or less in five of his previous six starts this season. He’d allowed just one home run entering the day.
Jackie Bradley Jr.’s solo home run down the right field line tied the score 2-2 in the fourth inning. That snapped a 0-for-22 stretch for Bradley. It was also his fourth home run of the season.
At the start of the sixth, Avisail Garcia’s flare over Royals first baseman Carlos Santana dribbled up the right field line far enough for Garcia to leg out a double. After Keller got Travis Shaw to hit a grounder to second base that allowed Garcia to advance to third, Matheny went to the bullpen.
Bradley hit a deep drive to center field against left-handed reliever Jake Brentz, but Taylor made a great athletic catch on the run at the wall on a ball that was on the border of either hitting the top of the wall or going for a two-run home run.
Instead it went for a sacrifice fly and allowed Garcia to score easily from third as the go-ahead run.
Holding the Brewers to one run there allowed the Royals to tie and take the lead in the seventh inning on the Soler homer and Lopez bunt.
This story was originally published May 19, 2021 at 10:33 PM.
