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The Kansas City Royals acquired a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning against the Detroit Tigers on Monday night, but when the Tigers quickly negated it by zooming out to a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the frame, Royals fans and a single bowl of petunias collectively went “Oh no, not again.” Fortunately, the Royals’ bats came alive to power them past the poor pitching start to a 12-6 victory over the Tigers.
Mike Montgomery, the Royals starter for this game, began the game well enough. He got through the first inning with no damage surrendered. And to start the inning, Montgomery was awfully unlucky. After giving up a single to Jordy Mercer, a ground ball through the teeth of the defense, Cameron Maybin blooped a second single at a measly exit velocity of 71 MPH. Then, Adalberto Mondesi made an error at shortstop on another grounder off the bat of Victor Reyes.
Afterwards, though, Montgomery stopped being unlucky and started being just plain bad. JaCoby Jones and Niko Goodrum crushed a home run and triple at 109 MPH and 104 MPH off the bat, respectively, and after a sac fly it was 5-1 Tigers.
The Royals chased Tigers starter Michael Fulmer in the third inning after resounding home runs by Whit Merrifield and Salvador Perez. That closed the score to 5-4, Detroit. In the bottom of the third, Mike Matheny continued his history of quick hooks by yanking Montgomery and replacing him with Foster Griffin for his Major League debut—on his 25th birthday, no less. Griffin went 1 2⁄3 scoreless innings, notching his first career strikeout and looking noticeably sharper than Montgomery. Unfortunately, Griffin left in the fourth inning with a left forearm strain.
The Royals roared ahead in the sixth inning with a flurry of hard hits. It began with a Franchy Cordero double and a Merrifield double, sandwiched around a Brett Phillips walked. For a moment, it looked like Kyle Funkhouser would wiggle out of it without any additional damage, but with two outs Salvador Perez walked (yes, walked). Ryan O’Hearn then poked a fastball through the shift for a single. Detroit then replaced Funkhouser with Beau Burrows.
It did not help. Franco hit his second home run of the night, a three-run shot to left, capping off a six-run fourth inning. It was one of six home runs for the Royals, which tied for a team home run record. Jorge Soler and Phillips hit two-run shots in the fifth and ninth innings, respectfully. Want to see them all? Ok! Here they are.
Franco
Whit
Salvy
Franco, Number Two
Soler
Phillips
A quartet of Royals relievers—Kevin McCarthy, Josh Staumont, Glenn Sparkman, and Gabe Speier—gave up one run across 5.1 innings after Griffin’s injury. Final score: 14-6.
The Royals are 2-2. As I stated in the game thread, the Miami Marlins coronavirus outbreak may well doom this season before it properly gets off the ground. The Royals are slated to face the Tigers for the second game out of four tomorrow, if it’s not cancelled or postponed along with the rest of the MLB season. So for tonight, enjoy the six-pack of juicy dongs and revel in a Royals win. It’s all we can do.