By MATT PIKE
Jac Caglianone hit his third multi home run game of the season, and second in as many days, as the Kansas City Royals won their fifth game out of their last six beating the Tampa Bay Rays 12-5 at Tropicana Field.
After hitting two home runs on Sunday in a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, Caglianone hit two against the Rays as the Royals offense exploded hitting seven extra base hits overall and three home runs. Back-to-back home runs in the first inning from Nick Loftin and Caglianone opened the scoring for Kansas City, putting them up 2-0 at the end of the top of the inning.
The Rays cut the lead to one in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI single from Junior Caminero driving in Yandy Díaz. Kansas City pulled away though in the fifth inning scoring four runs, the first coming when Michael Massey scored after his leadoff double on a bunt from Tyler Tolbert. Tolbert would get all the way to third base on a throwing error from Tampa starter Shane McClanahan.
With two outs Tolbert scored on an RBI single from Loftin, who scored himself in the very next at bat when Caglianone hit his second home run of the game to give the Royals a 6-1 lead at the end of five innings. Kansas City held that lead until the eighth inning when the offense continued to add on to the lead, scoring five more runs.
Luinder Avila exited after five innings, but earned the win improving to 3-3 on the season, giving up just three hits and one run while walking four and striking out six batters. Since allowing eight runs to the Houston Astros, in Avila's last two starts, he's given up just six hits and allowed two runs in 11.2 innings, walking five and striking out 11.
In the eighth inning, after back-to-back singles from Loftin and Caglianone led off the inning, Salvador Perez doubled to drive in both runners to extend the lead. A single from Carter Jensen moved Perez to third base before the Royals captain scored on a sacrifice fly by Starling Marte. With two outs, Tolbert singled, moving Jensen to third, and Kameron Misner doubled to drive Jensen home, moving Tolbert to third. A wild pitch scored the final run of the top half, bringing Tolbert across home plate to put Kansas City up 11-1 at the end of the top of the eighth.
In the bottom of the inning Caminero added another run for the Rays hitting a solo home run. In the ninth, Kansas City got that run back with an RBI double from recently recalled Josh Rojas, scoring Loftin, before Tampa Bay added the final three runs in the bottom half, an RBI single by Jonathan Aranda driving in Chandler Simpson, another RBI single from Cedric Mullins bringing home Taylor Walls, and Aranda scoring on an RBI single by Caminero.
At the plate, Caglianone was 3-for-5 with two home runs and three RBIs. Loftin was 4-for-5 with a home run and two RBI's with four runs scored. Tolbert was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
Kansas City looks to secure the series victory against Tampa Bay tomorrow. Noah Cameron (4-4, 4.20 ERA, 70K's) takes the mound for the Royals against Griffin Jax (2-5, 3.67 ERA, 46K's) for the Rays. First pitch is at 5:40pm, pregame coverage begins at 5 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.