By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
After being delayed a day thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Beryl, the Kansas City Royals swept the Cardinals in the first half of the I-70 Series, coming from behind for a 6-4 win in game one and winning game two 8-5.
The Cardinals did take an early 3-0 lead in game one of the series, thanks to home runs from Nolan Arenado and Alec Burleson, but the Royals would score three in the fifth inning to tie the game up. The very next inning, Salvador Perez would hit a home run to give Kansas City the 4-3 lead.
Two more runs would score for the Royals in the eighth inning, Maikel Garcia scoring on a sacrifice fly and Bobby Witt Jr coming across on a single from Perez.
The Cardinals Paul Goldschmidt homered off of closer James McArthur in the ninth to narrow the gap, but McArthur would earn his 16th save of the season. Alec Marsh would earn the win, pitching six innings and striking out eight batters, giving up three runs.
St. Louis would again take an early lead in game two thanks to a solo home run from Lars Nootbaar in the second inning, but MJ Melendez would hit his 10th home run of the season tying the game up in the third inning.
Perez would again be the one to give the Royals a lead in the fourth inning, a sacrifice fly scoring Bobby Witt Jr. Hunter Renfroe would add another run driving in Pasquantino with a single. But the Cardinals would narrow the lead in the bottom half, a Nolan Gorman ground rule double would push in Nootbaar.
Adam Frazier would again extend the lead in the fifth inning, driving in Kyle Isbel with a single, however Frazier would end up at third base on the play. As left fielder Brendan Donovan attempted to throw out Isbel at home, Frazier would advance to second, then with no one covering third base would proceed to take that base as well. Frazier later scored on a sacrifice fly from Witt Jr.
St. Louis would again narrow the lead to one run in the bottom of the fifth inning, a double from Burleson scoring Willson Contreras. After Burleson ended up at third thanks to a throwing error from Witt Jr, he would score on a single from Goldschmidt.
In the sixth inning, Perez would hit his second home run of the day to extend the lead again, and then in the seventh the Royals would push ahead by two runs on a single from Pasquantino that scored Isbel, Kansas City holding a 7-5 lead.
It was the second time in Perez’s career that he homered in both games of a doubleheader, a feat that’s been done 18 times by 13 different Royals.
Contreras would drive in a run on a ground out in the bottom of the seventh for the Cardinals final run. Isbel would put the final nail in the coffin in the ninth, hitting a solo home run to right field. McArthur would again close the game, earning his second save of the night and 17th of the season.
Michael Wacha, pitching against the team that drafted him in 2012, earned the win for his sixth of the season, striking out three and giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits over five innings.
The series win was the first on the road for the Royals since they took two of three from the Tampa Bay Rays near the end of May.
Kansas City will have an off day on Thursday, with the final series of the first half starting on Friday in Boston against the Red Sox. Cole Ragans is scheduled to start the first game, the starter for Boston has yet to be announced. First pitch at 6:10pm with pregame at 5:30 on KFEQ.