Royals sting Rays

Ervin Santana just keeps doing Ervin Santana things. At least the 2013 version of Ervin Santana things.

7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO

That's a Game Score of 70. Tied for his second best outing of the season.

Santana threw 104 pitches on the night, including a four pitch first inning. Yes, four pitches. I thought the Rays were supposed to be smart baseball team. Working as usual with his fastball/slider combo, Santana induced only eight swings and misses. And the Rays were only able to produce five hits.

Santana's slider was particularly effective on Thursday. He threw it a total of 54 times and only three of them were put in play.

Oh, he also threw 23 first pitch strikes to the 28 batters he faced.

Roll on, Ervin. Roll on.

While Santana was doing Santana things, the Royals offense was busy being the Royals offense. At least through five innings. Then, the sixth inning happened.

Sometimes, strange things happen in baseball. Like Elliot Johnson hitting a home run.

Ballgame.

Other observations:

-- Five of the Royals 14 hits went for extra bases.

-- It was the first time since May 10 the Royals hit two home runs in a game.

-- They have now homered in three consecutive games. That's tied for their second longest streak of the season. Their longest came May 7-11 when they homered in five straight against the Orioles and Yankees.

-- It was the third time the Royals scored in double digits this season. The first coming against Philadelphia when they plated 13 on April 5. They also scored 11 against the Angels on May 13.

-- In three games, the Royals have outscored the Rays 27-11.

-- I could have sworn I posted a photo with the GameThread.

-- Your Eric Hosmer batted ball update: Three fly balls tonight. All of them to center field. I know I'm supposed to note his home run was hit to the left of dead center, but he hit the ball so damn far (an estimated 425 feet) and the Trop isn't an easy place to hit them out, so I'll cut him a break. Besides, 10 runs!

-- Jeff Francoeur pinch hit for Alex Gordon and Chris Getz pinch hit for Billy Butler. Disturbing to read, no matter how large the lead.