By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals are one of the hottest teams in baseball right now, winning 15 of their last 17 games, shutting out the White Sox on Thursday afternoon for their third series sweep of the season 10-0 at Kauffman Stadium, and pushing their current win streak to six games.
It started off simple for Kansas City, with a single run in the first inning, Salvador Perez doubling to drive in Vinnie Pasquantino who singled, and another single run in the third again driven in by Perez this time on a single scoring Bobby Witt Jr who singled and stole second base. Behind a strong performance from starting pitcher Kris Bubic, the Royals began running away with the game in the fifth inning.
Two runs scored in the fifth when Maikel Garcia hit his first triple of the season, a deep fly ball to center field that bounced off the wall and away from Louis Robert Jr, scoring Jonathan India and Witt Jr. Earlier in the inning, Witt Jr stole his second base of the game, and his 13th of the season to put himself into scoring position.
Another two spot was added to the scoreboard in the sixth inning by Kansas City. Drew Waters singled, and stole second base for his third stolen base of the season, and later scored on a double by India. Witt Jr followed India's double up with one of his own to score India to put the Royals up 6-0 at the end of six innings.
The Royals pulled Bubic from the mound in the eighth. Bubic, who improved to 4-2 with the win, pitched seven shutout innings giving up six hits and striking out seven, while walking just one batter, marking the 19th quality start of the season from a Royals starting pitcher, which leads the MLB.
Kansas City continued to pour it on in the bottom of the eighth inning with the final four runs. Waters and Freddy Fermin hit back to back singles before a single from India brought Waters home to score. A double by Witt Jr drove in Fermin, and Cavan Biggio came on to pinch run for Witt Jr who had a four hit day. Vinnie Pasquantino singled for the fifth consecutive hit of the inning to score India. Perez recorded the first out of the inning, but still drove in Biggio with a sacrifice fly for the final run.
Multiple Royals contributed at the plate on the day, led by Witt Jr who was 4-5 with two doubles, two stolen bases, and two RBI's. India (2-4, 1 2B, 2 RBI), Pasquantino (2-5, 1 RBI), Perez (2-4, 1 2B, 3 RBI), Garcia (2-5, 1 3B, 2 RBI) also came up big in the win.
Kansas City will stay home tomorrow to welcome in Boston, a team whose .500 over their last 10 games. Michael Lorenzen will start for the Royals, hoping to bounce back from his last start where he gave up four home runs, taking on Hunter Dobbins for the Red Sox. First pitch is at 6:40pm, pregame coverage will begin at 6 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.