Kansas City Royals keep the pedal down in their 8-1 home victory over the Mariners
The Kansas City Royals felt like they left runs on the field Friday night. One or two timely hits might have altered the outcome in a four-run loss.
Michael A. Taylor and his Royals cohorts couldn’t go back in time, so they simply unleashed a 15-hit barrage on the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night. The Royals led from start to finish as they secured an 8-1 win in front of an announced 20,085 at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals (67-81) snapped a three-game losing slide and evened the series at one game apiece to set up a rubber match on Sunday afternoon. The Royals clinched the season series between the clubs with Saturday’s win.
All nine starting position players had at least one hit for the Royals for just the second time this season. Six players drove in runs.
Taylor went 2 for 4 with a double and a home run, while Whit Merrifield, Nicky Lopez, Andrew Benintendi, Adalberto Mondesi and Hunter Dozier all registered two hits apiece.
“It’s always good when you can cash in when you have runners on base,” Taylor said. “You’re not going to be 100 percent at any time, but I feel like as long as we’re having quality at-bats we’re giving ourselves a chance.”
Taylor had two of the team’s three extra-base hits, both to center field.
He said he’d made a small adjustment in his approach after analyzing some of the pitches in the areas he wasn’t hitting as well along with hitting coaches Terry Bradshaw and John Mabry. Taylor’s typical approach had been to try to drive balls to right or right-center field.
“In the last two or three weeks, I’ve tried to move my sights over a little bit more towards the middle of the field and I feel like it has helped me get to some pitches, maybe inside a little bit” Taylor explained.
Royals starting pitcher Kris Bubic allowed just one run on two hits in 6 1/3 innings. The left-hander worked around four walks and struck out two. He didn’t give up a run until the seventh inning.
The walks likely prevented him from going deeper into the game. He threw 97 pitches.
The Royals offense didn’t waste time getting started. They scored the game’s first run on just one hit, a leadoff infield single, in the first inning.
Merrifield singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on the third wild pitch of the inning. The third wild pitch robbed Benintendi of the chance to drive in Merrifield, but Benintendi singled, advanced to second on a Carlos Santana single and scored on Mondesi’s RBI single.
The Royals carved out a 2-0 lead in the first.
They added to that lead in the third on back-to-back two-out doubles ripped by Mondesi and Taylor. Mondesi doubled into left-center field and stole third base before Taylor lined a ball over the head of Mariners center fielder Jarred Kelenic for an RBI double.
In the fifth, Taylor smoked a 2-0 fastball 433 feet to center field for a solo home run. It was Taylor’s 12th homer of the season and gave the Royals a 4-0 advantage.
“In a three-run game — and we’d already let some opportunities slip away — that one could have really gotten away from us had we not been able to add a little bit on,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “To add that run on was big. The ball carries off his bat. He gets backswing without even trying. His swing has just improved, the consistency of it and how he stays through the zone. He’s a dangerous hitter.”
Each of their first four runs came with two outs in three separate innings.
The Mariners scratched out one run against Bubic in the seventh after a leadoff double to center field by Ty France. France scored from third on Abraham Toro’s RBI groundout after Bubic turned the game over to the bullpen. Bubic allowed the runner to reach, so he was responsible for the run.
The Royals loaded the bases in the eighth and tacked on four runs courtesy of RBI singles by Lopez and Salvador Perez, a Benintendi sacrifice fly and an RBI groundout by Santana.
“Overall, I thought the guys did a good job of grinding through at-bats,” Matheny said. “As you look at the end of the day, almost every one of them had a couple things that they did offensively to help us win. That’s a pretty special day, offensively.”
First pitch for Sunday’s series finale is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. CT. The pitching matchup will feature Mariners right-hander Logan Gilbert (5-5, 4.97 ERA) against Royals rookie right-hander Jackson Kowar (0-3, 11.50).
This story was originally published September 18, 2021 at 9:54 PM.
