Royals fend off Reds, hold on for 4-3 victory

It was long and it wasn’t pretty, but the Royals held off the Reds for win #55. The Royals got things going off Matt Harvey, scoring the game’s first run in the second on a Brian Goodwin infield single with two outs to score Salvador Perez.

After a 51 minute rain delay, the Royals tacked on two more runs as Ryan O’Hearn slugged the 12th home run of his short season, one of his two extra-base hits on the night.

Eric Skoglund did his job, putting together 2 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings, allowing only one baserunner, striking out one. The delay would knock him out of the game early, making Brian Flynn the long-man for the night. He made things more entertaining in the fifth inning, as Dilson Herrera pulled the Reds within one on a two-run blast, his fourth of the year.

After Brian Flynn worked across eight outs and Tim Hill threw a scoreless frame, Brandon Maurer would do his thing, allowing the Reds to tie it in the bottom of the seventh on a triple and a single. He struck out the side though!

We looked to be heading for another extra inning affair, but Hunter Dozier would put the Royals on top in the ninth, hitting his 11th home run of the year (him and O’Hearn like to homer in the same game).

Wily Peralta would fight off a walk and a couple bad luck singles (thanks to good plays by Mondesi and Dozier) to stay perfect in the save department. Joey Votto had a chance to win it, but he grounded out to Merrifield on a first pitch swing.

The Royals will go for the two-game sweep tomorrow with Heath Fillmyer making his final start of the season. They’ll face an old organizational friend in Cody Reed.