Kelenic’s two homers sink Kansas City Royals in series opener at Kauffman Stadium
Two big swings by Seattle Mariners highly touted rookie center fielder Jarred Kelenic forced the Kansas City Royals to unsuccessfully play catch-up for most of the night.
The Mariners pitching staff made sure the Royals never made up that head start Kelenic provided, and the Royals lost their third game in a row, 6-2, on Friday night in front of an announced 14,904 at Kauffman Stadium in the opener of a three-game series.
The Royals (66-81) fell to 3-2 against the Mariners this season.
The Mariners took some of the shine off of Royals pitcher Jonathan Heasley’s major-league debut. The right-handed Texas native pitched four innings and allowed four runs.
Kelenic, 22, became the youngest Mariners player with a multi-homer game since Alex Rodríguez hit two home runs on Aug. 21, 1996. Kelenic hit both of his homers off Heasley, and both were two-run blasts.
Royals left fielder Andrew Benintendi went 2 for 4 with an RBI, and Hunter Dozier hit his third home run in his past six games. Center fielder Michael A. Taylor returned to the lineup for the first time since Saturday, and he had a hit in the loss.
The Royals’ Whit Merrifield went 2 for 5 with a double, and shortstop Nicky Lopez went 1 for 4 and extended his on-base streak to 26 consecutive games.
Royals star catcher Salvador Perez did not homer in the game. Perez (0 for 4) remains tied with Hall of Famer Johnny Bench for the most home runs by a primary catcher in a single season in MLB history (45).
Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a home run to move one ahead of Perez for the major-league lead this season.
Mariners starting pitcher Chris Flexen (12-6) held the Royals to one run on six hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings.
“We kept putting ourselves in position, but credit to Flexen,” Merrifield said. “He seemed to wiggle out of those anytime he got in a jam. It looks like he has done it all year. He has got good numbers. He made pitches when he needed to, and we weren’t able to get a big hit when we needed to.”
The Royals didn’t score until they had two outs in the sixth inning. After a Merrifield single and a walk by Perez, Benintendi dropped a well-placed single in shallow left field with two outs that allowed Merrifield to score from second base.
Benintendi’s RBI single made the score 4-1. Then Carlos Santana drew a walk to load the bases for Taylor. However, Taylor struck out, ending the inning with three men stranded on base.
The Mariners added a run in the seventh after the first two batters of the inning reached on a walk and a single against relief pitcher Kyle Zimmer. Left-hander Jake Brentz entered the game with runners on first and third, and he nearly got out of the inning without allowing a run.
However, a potential inning-ending double play didn’t get turned when Dozier’s foot came off first base and prevented the second out from being made. The runner scored from third on the play.
Dozier homered in the bottom of the seventh and made the score 5-2. Dozier has hit in four consecutive games, and he entered the night having gone 8 for 24 in his previous seven games with seven of his hits going for extra bases.
The Mariners tacked another run onto their total in the eighth on Luis Torrens’ two-out RBI single into right field.
The Royals had two runners on second and third in the ninth inning, but Perez grounded out to end the game.
They left 10 men on base in the game.
“Some missed opportunities, but their starter didn’t give us a lot though,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “He was pretty tough. He was using the breaking ball, using the cutter, controlling the counts. He didn’t give us much to work with early on. Then we had a couple missed opportunities, not even missed opportunities as much as that big hit was what we were looking for. We get some guys on base and in scoring position, we couldn’t get the big hit that we were needing.”
The second game of the three-game series is set for a first pitch at 6:10 p.m. CT on Saturday. The pitching matchup features Mariners left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (7-8, 4.23 ERA) vs. Royals left-hander Kris Bubic (4-6, 4.99).
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 11:12 PM.
