Royals bats stay hot in 7-2 win over Giants

Mike Moustakas is pretty good.

Michael ended a 17-year drought by becoming the first Royals player to ever hit a baseball into McCovey Cove. It went in on a hop, but I’m going to count it.

The 415-foot home run opened up the scoring in the 2nd inning, but his bomb wouldn’t be the only one.

Jorge Bonifacio hit a two-run homer after Whit Merrifield opened up the inning with a bunt single.

Lorenzo Cain promptly followed with a solo shot of his own, his seventh on the season and his fifth this June, to put the Royals up 4-0.

For those keeping track at home, his five June home runs equals the most he has ever hit in a month, and we are only 14 days in. He hit five homers back in July of 2015, as well.

Lorenzo has been one of several red-hot Royals, entering this afternoon’s contest slugging at a .614 clip in June.

It goes without saying that Moustakas is one of those other red-hot Royals, as evidenced by this:

Coincidentally, the Royals home run barrage came against former World Series hero Johnny Cueto, who gave up four batted balls of at least 100 MPH off the bat in the 2nd and 3rd inning, including three straight in the 3rd.

The three homers gave the Royals 13 on this road trip through just five games.

The Giants responded in the 4th, on a two-out single from Austin Slater that made it a 4-1 game. The single stung a little more than your ordinary one-run single with a four-run lead because Johnny Cueto was on-deck.

Jason Hammel got out of the jam, however, by inducing an inning-ending Cueto groundout.

The Royals jumped right back on Cueto the next inning, when Cain led off the inning with his 27th walk of the season and moved to third on an Eric Hosmer double down the left-field line.

It should be noted that Cain is just 10 walks away from his career high of 37 walks, set back in 2015. It took him 604 plate appearances to get to that mark, while it has taken him just 263 to get to 27 this season.

The Royals, however, wouldn’t cash in on having runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, with Moustakas, Escobar and eventually Drew Butera all striking out.

Hammel found him in trouble again in the 5th, when two singles and a wild pitch put runners at 2nd and 3rd with two outs. Hammel, however, would get Brandon Crawford fishing for a 1-2 slider to end the inning.

Although he labored at times, Hammel quietly threw the ball well again. So far in three June starts, he has given up just five runs in 20.1 innings.

The Royals continued to help his cause, adding another run in the 6th on a Bonifacio double to push the Kansas City lead to 5-1. The double gave Bonifacio his third RBI of the afternoon, a career high for the rookie.

Cain was robbed of an infield single on a great play by Eduardo Nunez, but moved Bonifacio to third with two outs. Bruce Bochy removed Cueto in favor of left-hander Josh Osich to face Hosmer, getting him to ground out to end the inning.

The Giants finally chased Hammel in the 7th, when Nunez blooped a two-out double in between Alex Gordon and Cain and was followed by a Brandon Belt walk.

Ned Yost removed Hammel for Peter Moylan to face Buster Posey, where bizarre things happened.

Posey knocked a ball right back at Moylan, who literally stopped the ball with his stomach. Moylan, however, lost the ball and did multiple revolutions before finally finding the ball and slinging it over to Hosmer, just beating Posey to the bag.

Hammel finished his afternoon 6.2 innings to his credit, giving up just one run on eight hits.

The Royals added two more runs in the 8th for good measure, on Cain’s third hit of the afternoon and a Moustakas sac fly to put the Royals up 7-1.

The Giants rallied a bit in the 9th against a struggling Kelvin Herrera, with Aaron Hill reaching base on a Escobar throwing error to begin the inning, followed by two singles. The second single coming off the bat of Nunez, to drive in Hill, and make it a 7-2 game.

However, a Belt double play and a Posey strikeout ended the threat.

The Kansas City offense compiled 16 hits, seven of which went for extra bases in their fourth straight victory.

Up Next: Royals at Angels, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, 9:07 PM CDT. LHP Matt Strahm (1-3, 4.50 ERA) v. TBD