Taylor ignites offense late again as the Kansas City Royals win their third in a row
The Kansas City Royals hadn’t mustered much for the better part of six innings against Los Angeles Angels pitcher Noah Syndergaard, but they scratched out a run with two outs in the sixth and suddenly the game changed Monday night.
The Royals scored seven runs in a three-inning span to earn their third consecutive win, a 7-0 series-opening victory over the Angels in front of an announced 16,616 at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals pitching staff recorded their sixth shutout of the season, the first since June 18 (at Oakland) and the first against the Angels since June 25, 2018.
Royals center fielder Michael A. Taylor went 2 for 4 and drove in three runs, all with two outs, while left fielder Andrew Benintendi went 3 for 5 with a stolen base, a bunt single and two runs scored.
“It’s a younger team, so I think the more we go out there and play good baseball and beat good baseball teams, the confidence is going to build,” Taylor said.
Rookie catcher MJ Melendez hit his 10th home run of the season. He and Bobby Witt Jr. became the first tandem of first-year players in Royals history with at least 10 homers.
Rookie designated hitter Vinnie Pasquantino (2 for 4, walk) also had two hits for the Royals (39-57) as did second baseman Whit Merrifield, who became the 16th Royals player to score 500 runs in his career.
Taylor, who homered to drive in the go-ahead run on Saturday night, provided the ice-breaking hit in a crucial sixth inning to break a scoreless tie.
“(Syndergaard) wasn’t giving us much,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “So we were going to have to kind of scratch and claw. Infield hits, guys going down the baseline to first, then waiting for someone to do their thing, and today it was Michael.
“Michael has been really impressive coming through in those big situations.”
Royals starting pitcher Zack Greinke pitched five scoreless innings and held the Angels to four hits and one walk. He struck out five, but did not factor into the decision.
Greinke also moved into 20th place in career MLB strikeouts.
The Angels posed their biggest threat to Greinke in the fifth inning. They put five men on base in that inning, including a walk, three fielder’s choice plays and an error.
Greinke made a leaping play off the mound to snag a high chopper, but his throw to shortstop Nicky Lopez couldn’t pull it in cleanly. The Royals also threw a runner out at the plate on a grounder to first baseman Nick Pratto.
Greinke got an inning-ending fly ball and stranded the bases loaded in that inning to keep the Angels out of the scoring column.
Royals reliever Amir Garrett took over on the mound at the top of the sixth inning in a 0-0 tie. He allowed a leadoff double to Jared Walsh, putting the Angels in position to draw first blood almost immediately after Greinke exited the game.
Instead, Garrett fielded a ball bunted back to the mound with Walsh attempting to advance to third. He threw to third baseman Emmanuel Rivera, who applied the tag to the runner.
Upon replay review, the runner was ruled out, eliminating the lead runner and effectively wiping away the leadoff double.
Garrett then got an inning-ending double play to keep the Angels scoreless.
“Getting the double-play ball when I needed it -- that was the turning point of the game, I believe,” Garrett said. “Whit told me right before that happened. He said, ‘Hey G. I’m going to play right behind you.’
“So when the ball was hit up the middle, my first instinct was to grab it, barehand it. Couldn’t do that, but I realized Whit’s right there.”
That set the table for the Royals to open the scoring in the bottom half of the inning.
“For Amir to make that play and keep them off third, changed that half of the inning and just kept the momentum going for us,” Taylor said.
The Royals made everything happen with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. After a strikeout and a flyout, Rivera reached on an infield single. Then Pratto (three walks, one hit by pitch) drew a walk to put runners on first and second.
Taylor swatted a first pitch slider just off the outside corner over the infield and into center. Up until that point, the Royals didn’t have a hit with a runner in scoring position against Syndergaard.
“With runners on I had a feeling he wanted to go to the slider,” Taylor said. “He attacked me with a lot of sliders in the past and had shown heaters in. So just looking for a good pitch out over the plate that I could get the bat on.”
The Royals tacked on four runs in the seventh inning, the first when Merrifield scampered home from third on a wild pitch that Angels catcher Max Stassi blocked but couldn’t completely smother.
The carom was far enough away from home plate for Merrifield to score the 500th run of his career. It also gave the Royals their first modicum of breathing room, which they built upon.
“It’s just something we practice,” Merrifield said of the play. “So I saw it kick away, and it’s a hard play for a catcher to go out and be able to get it and come back. The pitcher wasn’t going to beat me there. I felt good about the read, and yeah at the time it was a big run.”
The next run came on a ball Rivera scorched up the middle of the glove of Angels second baseman Luis Rengifo.
Benintendi, who reached on a bunt single, scored on that play. Taylor came through again with two outs when he hit a two-run single to right field to give the Royals a 5-0 advantage.
Melendez’s homer in the eighth added two more runs onto the Royals’ total.
This story was originally published July 25, 2022 at 10:22 PM.
