By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A four run sixth inning overwhelmed Royals starting pitcher Michael Wacha and reliever Sam Long, and Kansas City fell 8-1 to the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.
Wacha cruised through the first five innings of the game, surrendering two runs in the second on a two RBI single by Gary Sanchez, that scored Tyler O'Neill and Ryan Mountcastle. Aside from that, Wacha struck out five batters, and gave up just four hits to the Orioles lineup. In the sixth, Wacha was one out away from a quality start when the wheels began to fall off.
Back-to-back singles from Cedric Mullins and Mountcastle forced manager Matt Quatraro to turn to reliver Sam Long, following Wacha retiring O'Neill on a flyout to center field, for a left-on-left matchup against Baltimore left fielder Heston Kjerstad. Kjerstad singled off Long to drive in Mullins. One batter later, Ramón Urías singled to second base, where the ball deflected off Maikel Garcia, and Mountcastle scored.
With Kjerstad at third, and Urías at first, Long walked Sanchez to load the bases, and then a single by Jackson Holliday scored both Kjerstad and Urías for the final runs of the inning. The Royals lone run of the game came in the bottom half of the sixth, Bobby Witt Jr hitting his first home run of the season to left field.
Baltimore scored the final runs of the game in the seventh inning on the first triple of the season for O'Neill, the former St. Louis Cardinal, driving in Jordan Westburg and Mulllins.
Wacha fell to 0-2 on the season taking the loss, pitching 5.2 innings, giving up six hits and four runs, striking out five and walking one. The Royals managed five hits in the loss, all coming from five different players.
The Royals and Orioles wrap up their series tomorrow. Kris Bubic will look to follow up his outstanding season debut as he takes the mound for Kansas City, against Cade Povich for Baltimore. First pitch will be at 1:10pm, coverage will begin at 12:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.