Kansas City Royals offense ignites as Carlos Santana has 4 hits in win over Blue Jays
After two days handcuffed by their visitors from the North, the Kansas City Royals hitters suddenly heated up and carried the day. They produced their highest run total in three and a half weeks, and they did it without the aid of the home run.
The Royals, who’d been shut out in each of their previous two games, swatted five extra-base hits and six players drove in runs in an 8-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon in front of an announced 12,196 at Kauffman Stadium.
With the win, the Royals (18-37) avoided being swept in the three-game series. They also stopped a three-game losing slide.
“I liked how guys went about the situational hitting, making things happen,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “That’s the kind of team we need to be, being able to hit and run, being able to put a bunt down, move guys around and then get the big hit. That’s what they did.”
Carlos Santana (4 for 4, walk, run scored, RBI) had a team-high four hits, while Whit Merrifield (2 for 5, RBI), Bobby Witt Jr. (2 for 4, walk, two runs scored) and Salvador Perez (2 for 5, run, RBI) had two hits apiece for the Royals.
In the sixth inning, Perez hit his first triple since July 19, 2017. He is 7 for 19 with seven RBIs in his last five games.
Michael A. Taylor (1 for 2) had a double, a walk, a run scored and was hit by a pitch. Taylor is 5 for 11 with three walks and two runs scored since he returned from the IL on June 3.
Meanwhile, Andrew Benintendi walked twice and scored twice. MJ Melendez (1 for 5, run scored, two RBIs) and Emmanuel Rivera (1 for 4, two RBIs) also drove in runs as part of a crucial first-inning offensive spurt.
“The game is crazy,” Perez said. “Sometimes you’re going to score a bunch of runs. Sometimes we’re trying to do our best and we’re facing really good pitchers for the other team. But we still hit the ball hard. The last two games we hit the ball hard, but we didn’t get any hits. It’s part of the game. What I always say, every day is a new day.”
The Royals chased Blue Jays starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi in the first inning, scoring all three of their runs with two outs.
With two outs and two runners on, thanks to walks by Benintendi and Witt, the Royals watched as Melendez blooped an RBI double up the left field line, then Santana loaded the bases via a walk and Rivera lined a two-run single into center field.
Melendez’s double came after he fouled off consecutive pitches with two strikes. Rivera’s single came on a 1-2 pitch.
Taylor drew a walk to load the bases for a second time, and that marked the end of Kikuchi’s outing. He threw 45 first-inning pitches and didn’t get the third out of the frame.
“I think it’s very important,” Taylor said of the offense’s fast start. “Whenever you’re playing with the lead, it makes things a lot easier. And to give an early lead to Singer right there is also good, just to kind of put him at ease and let him go out there and do his thing.”
All nine members of the Royals batting order came to the plate in the first. They had just one extra-base hit, but scored three runs on two hits and four walks.
“I thought they were very relentless in how they took their at-bats,” Matheny said. “Obviously, a huge day for Santana — him getting on base five times and putting together some good at-bats. Obviously, he needed that. We needed that. But I thought there were really good at-bats all the way through the lineup today.”
Singer steady despite homers
Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer (3-1) allowed three runs and eight hits, including two home runs. He struck out five and did not walk a batter.
The Blue Jays’ home run-reliant lineup cut into that deficit just two batters into the second inning when Singer hung a slider to Raimel Tapia, who pummeled it 441 feet into the right-center field fountain.
Zack Collins made Singer pay again to start the third when he belted a 3-2 sinker into the stands for the Blue Jays’ second solo homer of the day. The next batter, Cavan Biggio, singled, went first-to-third on a one-out single and then scored on an RBI groundout by Vladimir Guerrero.
The Royals’ three-run lead at the end of the first had become a tie game by the end of the top of the third inning.
“I thought the command was OK,” Singer said. “The slider helped me out a lot today. I felt like I battled, gave the team a chance to win.”
Singer didn’t allow the Blue Jays (33-23) to score in the fourth or the fifth and stranded a pair of runners on base in each inning.
Once the Blue Jays tied the score, the Royals scored the next five runs. They started with two runs in the fourth on a Perez RBI single up the middle and a Melendez’s infield grounder that scored Witt.
They added a run in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
“That was incredible,” Singer said. “You knew it was going to happen. The offense was going to break out. They’re still doing an incredible job. They’re working every single day trying to fight for us, put runs on the board. So it was a really good team win.”
The Royals scored at least eight runs for the fourth time this season, the most recent time coming on May 15 at Colorado.
The Blue Jays scored their fourth run in the ninth inning.
“That’s kinda the formula, score early, score late and give our pitcher some cushion and put together good at-bats throughout the course of the game,” Merrifield said. “That’s the formula. Let’s see if we can do it more often.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 4:43 PM.
