By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Royals mashed a season high 22 hits and Salvador Perez, Luke Maile, Lane Thomas, and Tyler Tolbert homered as the Royals tagged Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez for a career-worst nine earned runs in a 15-1 win at Kauffman Stadium.
The offensive explosion backed a strong performance by St. Joseph's Noah Cameron, who improved to 5-6 earning the win, allowing one run on six hits with five walks and seven strikeouts in five innings. The Phillies scored the opening run in the top of the first inning off Cameron on an RBI double by Alec Bohm, driving in Trea Turner who also doubled in the inning, but were shut down the rest of the way despite having at least one baserunner in every inning.
In the bottom of the first, Bobby Witt Jr. scored on fielder's choice when the Phillies failed to turn an inning-ending double play to tie the game. An RBI single by Nick Loftin scored Jac Caglianone to break the tie, and after Starling Marte's RBI single, that drove in Loftin, and a single by Tolbert, Maile hit a three-run home run in his first at-bat of the season to cap a six run first inning. Salvador Perez added to Sanchez's misery with his 11th home run in the second. It was the 314th homer of his career, moving him to three behind George Brett for the most in franchise history.
The Royals continued to score through the remainder of the game, adding at least a run in each inning. An RBI double by Tolbert in the third scored Loftin, in the fourth Thomas hit his solo home run, and then in the fifth inning Kansas City had another one run inning when Tolbert hit his first home run of the season to make it 10-1 Royals.
In the sixth inning Marte extended the lead with an RBI single scoring Witt Jr, and the Royals added two more runs in the seventh inning on an RBI single by Caglianone driving in Kameron Misner and a groundout by Loftin that scored Michael Massey, before extending the final two runs in the eighth inning on RBI singles by Massey and Caglianone that brought home Tolbert and Maile respectively.
At the plate, Tolbert was 5-for-5, coming a triple shy of the cycle, with a double, home run, and two RBIs while scoring three runs. Perez was 3-for-4, also a triple shy of the cycle, with a double and a home run, while driving in one and scoring one run. Thomas was 2-for-3 with a home run and a walk, driving in one and scoring a run.
Next, Kansas City hits the road tomorrow to travel to play the New York Mets. Seth Lugo (3-6, 4.20 ERA, 76K's) will open the series for the Royals against his former team, while the Mets have not named a starter. First pitch is at 6:10pm, pregame will begin at 5:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.