The offense came through when it mattered.
Cole Ragans pitched a solid outing while Kansas City capitalized on their scoring opportunities as the Royals salvaged the final game of this three-game set with an 8-4 victory.
After failing to score in seven innings against Kutter Crawford in their matchup last month, the Royals needed just two batters to get on the board tonight. After Michael Massey struck out to begin the game, Bobby Witt Jr. somehow managed to pull a pretty good sweeper low-and-away into the left field corner and over the fence for a solo homer. They plate disciplined their way to another run in the second. MJ Melendez worked a walk to lead off the inning and, after two outs, Kyle Isbel also reached base on balls. Massey went down 1-2 before ripping a knock into right field. Rob Refsnyder misplayed it slightly, allowing Melendez to score on a bang-bang play at the plate.
After getting just one baserunner over the first two innings, Boston responded in the third. Ragans walked Nick Sogard to lead off the inning with some close pitches not going his way. Ceddane Rafaela rolled one over to second for what should have been a 4-3. However, Massey tried to hurry a flip to second to get Sogard and the ball sailed, forcing Witt to jump off the bag. Safe all around. Jarren Duran struck out and then Refsnyder beat out a potential double play ball, bringing up Romy Gonzalez with two outs. He got a cutter middle-in and didn’t miss it, launching it into the left field bullpen to put Boston up 3-2.
Danny Jansen would lead off the next inning with a bomb of his own, putting Boston up 4-2. But Kansas City would battle back in the bottom of the inning. Melendez took advantage of a tight strike zone to draw a leadoff walk. Maikel Garcia then slashed one into the right-center gap for a knock that moved Melendez to third. With one out and Isbel at the plate, Crawford sent a ball to the backstop, allowing Melendez to score and Garcia to advance to second. Massey then went down 0-2 before battling back to work a walk, bringing up Witt in a big scoring opportunity. He also quickly found himself down 0-2 but then slashed a high fastball into the right field corner to score both runners, retaking the lead for the Royals. The knock sent Crawford to the showers.
Enter Brennan Bernandino out of Boston’s bullpen. Vinnie Pasquantino greeted him rudely, taking strike one before blasting a low-and-in fastball deep into the night to give Kansas City a 7-4 lead. Meanwhile, Ragans settled in nicely following Jansen’s homer. The next batter singled, but Ragans got him as part of a double play and did not allow another baserunner through the sixth inning. Witt, determined to take the lead in the MVP race, crushed a ball to straightaway second for his second homer of the game in the bottom of the inning.
Matt Quatraro, determined to diminish his pitcher’s line, sent Ragans back out for the seventh sitting at 95 pitches. This allowed Ragans to surrender Masataka Yoshida’s 27th hit of this series. He bounced back to punch out Sogard before Rafaela delivered the knock that would bounce Ragans from the game. Lucas Erceg was summoned to sort out the mess and it sort it he did, retiring Duran and pinch-hitter Wilyer Abreu to end the inning. He came out for the eighth as well and cruised through a 1-2-3 inning. Will Smith entered for the ninth and pitched a 1-2-3 frame of his own to close out the 8-4 win.
The win improves the Royals to 64-52. They are a half game behind Minnesota for the second wild card (with one more win and two more losses) and one game ahead of Boston for the third slot. Kansas City will get tomorrow off before welcoming St. Louis to town for a rare two-game weekend set.
Cole Ragans: 6.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 2 HR
Kutter Crawford: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 1 HR
Bobby Witt Jr.: 3-4, 2 HR, 2B, 3 R, 4 RBI
Romy Gonzalez: 1-3, HR, R, 3 RBI
