Moustakas defeats Balboni, Royals thump Blue Jays 15-5

I have to admit, I was starting to get worried.

Similar to his home run derby performance, when he needed just one more homer to tie Miguel Sano with 45 seconds still on the clock, I was worried that Mike Moustakas would stall.

Luckily for all of us Royals fans who had been holding our collective breath for the last few weeks, he did not, and the Royals also knocked the Blue Jays around to the tune of a 15-5 score.

In total, the Royals tallied 18 hits, seven of which went for extra-bases. Every Royals starter recorded a hit and Ned Yost wound up pulling nearly all of his starters. It wasn’t the worst night.

Nearly half of Kansas City's runs came in an eight-run juggernaut of a second inning, highlighted by doubles from Jorge Bonifacio, Eric Hosmer and Moustakas, as well as a homer from Salvador Perez. It was his 26th of the season, as he quietly continues to have the best offensive season of his career.

The Royals then unleashed more power in the 6th with a lead off home run by Whit Merrifield and Moustakas' two-out record-breaking 37th homer.

Whit’s homer was a second-decker in contrast to a low hanging fly ball that just had the legs to get out for Moose. However, in the record books, it won’t matter. And it seems like so many record breaking home runs are wall scrapers, for some reason. I don’t have any data to back up this claim, but I always think of Mark McGwire’s record breaker when these types of homers come up.

Now he just needs to get to 40, because the lack of a 40-home run hitter is arguably more infamous than having Steve Balboni as our home run king.

Jake Junis threw well once again, going 6.1 innings and giving up just two earned runs on three hits. In a season marred by disappointment, it’s hard not to be excited about guys like Merrifield, Junis and even Bonifacio, who all have had surprisingly good seasons.

Most of the Blue Jays damage came in a four-run 7th, two of which were unearned thanks to a Junis throwing error. Two of the Blue Jays three hits off of Junis came in that 7th inning, with Jakob retiring 18 of the first 20 batters he faced, with the only pre-7th inning hit being an infield single from Kevin Pillar

The Royals added two more runs in the 8th for good measure on singles by Bonifacio and the-guy-that-broke-camp-instead-of-Whit-Merrifield Raul Mondesi.

Kelvin Herrera continued his season long struggle, giving up a one-out homer to Raffy Lopez in the 9th to make it a 15-5 game, a score that would prove to be final.

The win brought the Royals to within 3.5 games of the 2nd Wild Card spot. I said in today’s game thread that it would take a 2007 Rockies type of run for the royals to make the post season. That is very, very, very unlikely, but hey, weirder things have happened.

Up Next: Royals at Blue Jays, Thursday, September 21, 2017, 6:07 PM CDT, Rogers Centre. LHP Jason Vargas (16-10, 4.19 ERA) v. J.A. Happ (9-10, 3.76 ERA)