By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Kansas City starting pitcher Kris Bubic once again looked brilliant on the mound against the Baltimore Orioles, helping the Royals to their first series win of the season, winning 4-1 on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals scored all their runs across the first two innings, then relied on the strong pitching of Bubic and the bullpen on way to the win. Three runs scored in the first on a slew of hitting, starting with a Bobby Witt Jr triple into right center field. Witt Jr came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Vinnie Pasquantino in the next at bat.
After the sacrifice fly, Kansas City got singles from Salvador Perez and Mark Canha, who came across to score on the third double of the season by Michael Massey. Hunter Renfroe struck out to end the first. The final Royals run in the second came thanks to an RBI single by Freddy Fermin, driving in Maikel Garcia, who led the inning off with a single.
The Orioles lone run came in the seventh inning of the game. Ryan Mountcastle led the inning off with a triple, his first of the season. Bubic bounced back from the triple, striking out Ramón Laureano, but while facing Gary Sánchez, Bubic threw a wild pitch, allowing Moutcastle to come home and score.
Bubic, coming off a strong six inning start against the Milwaukee Brewers where he struck out eight batters and gave up just three hits, looked nearly untouchable again, this time lasting nearly seven innings, but was pulled before recording the final out of the seventh, after throwing 99 pitches, for reliever Hunter Harvey. Harvey struck out Ramón Urías to end the inning.
Lucas Erceg pitched a hitless eighth inning, striking out two batters, before Carlos Estévez closed out the game in the ninth, also allowing no hits and striking out one, for his second save of the season.
Bubic pitched 6.2 innings, giving up five hits and one run, striking out eight batters and walking one. The Royals bullpen combined for 2.1 innings, giving up no hits and striking out four. Witt Jr led the way hitting for Kansas City, going 3-4 and coming up a home run shy of the cycle.
Kansas City opens up a series against their AL Central foes the Minnesota Twins on Monday. Michael Lorenzen starts for the Royals against Simeon Woods Richardson for Minnesota. First pitch will be at 6:40pm, the game will air on the FanDuel Sports Network.
There will be no coverage of Royals baseball on KFEQ due to the NCAA Men's Championship game between Florida and Houston. That coverage begins at 6pm.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.