By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals scored six runs in the second inning and topped the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-3 on Friday night, opening up a three game series in Pittsburgh.
The big second inning started the scoring for the Royals, the first coming on a sharp line drive single from Yuli Gurriel to score Robbie Grossman. One batter later Kyle Isbel would hit a double, his 12th of the season, to drive in Adam Frazier.
With two in scoring position the top of the order would come to the plate, and a single by Tommy Pham drove in both Gurriel and Isbel, then after Bobby Witt Jr lined out, Salvador Perez would cap the scoring blasting a two run homer into the Royals bullpen, leaving Kansas City up 6-0 after two innings.
Kansas City would extend the lead in the fourth inning on a solo home run from Isbel, his eighth of the year. Starting pitcher Alec Marsh would hold the Pirates scoreless until the sixth inning, a single from Joey Bart driving in Oneil Cruz, after which Marsh would be replaced by Carlos Hernandez.
The Royals would add their final run in the eighth inning on another home run, this time off the bat of Adam Frazier. The Pirates final runs would be in the bottom of the ninth off of Chris Stratton, a sacrifice fly by Bryan Reynolds bringing in Bryan De La Cruz and Oneil Cruz singling to score Jared Triolo.
Marsh earned the win for Kansas City, pitching 5.1 innings and giving up one run on five hits, walking two and striking out 11 batters. Isbel and Perez were the leading hitters with two hits, both hitting home runs and driving in two runs each.
The Royals are back in action on Saturday against the Pirates, sending Michael Wacha to the mound to face Mitch Keller. First pitch is at 12:05pm with pregame at 11:30 on KFEQ.