The night may have been cold in Kansas City, but the Rays’ bats were certainly warm.
Tampa Bay hit three home runs and had seven different players drive in runs, and they would need it before finally pulling away late to defeat the Royals 14-7 Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium, their fifth straight win.
“We were kind of counting pitches and innings,” manager Kevin Cash said. “And until we separated right there at the end it did feel a little tighter than was comfortable.”
Austin Meadows scored the first run of the game, leading off against Royals starter Brad Keller with a base hit, moving to second on Randy Arozarena’s single, his first of three hits on the night, taking third on a fielder’s choice by Joey Wendle, and scoring when Whit Merrifield botched Brandon Lowe‘s ground ball for an error.
Tampa Bay added four more runs in the second, chasing Keller from the game. Meadows’ sacrifice fly brought in Kevin Kiermaier, and Wende’s RBI single plated Willy Adames. Reliever Jake Newberry then brought in two runs by walking first Manuel Margot then Yoshi Tsutsugo each with the bases loaded.
Kansas City would bounce back against Rich Hill, scoring four times on five consecutive hits in the bottom of the third, and chasing the lefty from the game. Andrew Kittredge settled things down, and got out of the inning with the lead, and was rewarded with the win to improve to 3-0 on the season.
Brandon Lowe gave Tampa Bay some breathing room in the fourth, taking an Ervin Santana pitch out over the wall in center for his second home run of the year.
Adames’ RBI triple in the fifth gave the Rays a three-run lead, but Carlos Santana’s solo homer off Brent Honeywell Jr., just recalled from the alternate training site, dropped the advantage to 7-5.
That would be as close as Kansas City would get, as Tampa Bay added four more runs in the sixth, and after the Royals put up single runs in the sixth and seventh, added three more runs on back-to-back home runs by Mike Zunino and Meadows to finish off the scoring.
The Rays can finish off an undefeated road trip Wednesday by sweeping the series against the Royals. First pitch is scheduled for 8:10.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
