Royals Swept by Cardinals, Best Fans in Baseball

Jonathan Sanchez almost managed to finish out the sixth inning, allowing just four hits while striking out three in 5.2 innings. Of course, he walked six Redbirds and two of those four hits he allowed were home runs, but let's not get bogged down in immaterial minutae. Sanchez nearly finished the sixth inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Salvador Perez plated the game-tying run with an RBI ground-out. That run that could have been the go-ahead run had Alex Gordon not gotten caught stealing after leading off the home-half of the first with a single only to erase himself on the basepaths trying to steal on Yadier Molina with Mike Moustakas in the on-deck circle preparing himself for the first of his two dong hangings this afternoon.

These are all trifling matters, as Kansas City ended up yielding five more runs, four in the eighth, an inning in which Ned Yost called upon Tim Collins to come back out for work in a third inning after recording the last out of the sixth for The Sanchize. Collins left--having recorded a solitary out and been called upon to intentionally walk batters on two separate occasions to set up the double-play--with the bases full and a run already having crossed the plate. Ned Yost called upon Aaron Crow to clean up Collins's mess, and when all was said and done the Cardinals' lead had been extended from 8 - 6 to 11 - 6. Only one Cardinals hit went for extra bases in the eighth, Matt Carpenter's lead-off "triple" that Jarrod Dyson misplayed off the wall, but Dyson also had an error that advanced what would eventually be the final run of the inning to third, which helped the Cardinals manage four runs on little more than singles and sacrifices.

The Royals would threaten to score in the bottom of the eighth, and Butler would hang dong to the opposite field--joining Moustakas (twice) and Francoeur as Kansas City's dong-hangers--in the ninth, driving in Alex "Air" Gordon, before Francoeur ended the game on a strikeout.

On their way out of the stadium, the sea of red shirt wearing Cardinals fans congratulated themselves on "their" win. While coordinating their regularly scheduled Sunday afternoon Best Fans in Baseball activities with one another, they all promised one another that they'd not dare go to a movie for the rest of this summer to honor Cardinals great Rogers Hornsby.