Royals forget what they’re supposed to be doing, win 4-2

Jakob Junis’ night did not start well. He allowed a lead-off double to Joe Mauer followed swiftly by an Eddie Rosario RBI-single. He promptly got a double-play ball from Brian Dozier and then struck out Eduardo Escobar. He allowed only two more hits and two walks, the rest of the night. Admittedly, he pitched only four innings as he was on a pitch count due to his recent injury trouble but he still pitched those four innings without giving up another run and struck out a total of six. It was a nice bounce-back outing for him.

Meanwhile, Salvador Perez ensured Junis would never pitch from behind after the first when he launched a two-run bomb down the right field line in the bottom of the first. Lance Lynn was not particularly effective or pitch efficient but still made it through the fifth inning allowing three runs on... 118 pitches. Lucas Duda tacked on a bases-loaded, two-out, RBI single in the bottom of the third. If you want to understand Lynn’s pitching difficulties a bit more then you might be interested to know that the bases were loaded on three walks. To the Royals. And Alcides Escobar and Salvy accounted for two of them. Moose had the other.

Brian Flynn earned the win by pitching three scoreless innings of relief for Junis. Jason Adam appeared but didn’t quite get the job done but escaped without giving up the lead when Tim Hill relieved him and immediately got a double-play ground ball. Wily Peralta bounced back from his bad outing last night to earn his third save of the year with a perfect ninth.

Jorge Bonifacio walked three times on the night and the Royals collected nine walks, total. They struck out only seven times. That’s the most times the team has walked in a game since August 13, last year, when they beat the White Sox 14-6; it’s only the sixth time since 2010. That was also the last time they walked at least nine times and struck out fewer times than they walked. The last time they walked more than nine times was June 17, 2012, against the Cardinals. Remarkably despite walking 10 times they only won 5-3. The team record for walks in a game was 15 set on September 4, 1975, also against the White Sox.

The Royals won their first series since they beat Minnesota at the end of May. It’s only the fourth series they’ve won all year. They’ll go for their first sweep and second three-game winning streak of the season tomorrow afternoon when Brad Keller takes on Jake Odorizzi.