Royals come from behind to beat Brewers, 5-2

The Royals scored first, fell behind 2-1 in the middle innings, and then used a pair of clutch homers to come back on Tuesday afternoon, beating the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-2.

Jorge Soler, for the second time in the last six games, hit a big home run to pull the Royals even in the fourth. That makes eight for Jorge, who desperately needs a strong second half to put any sort of value into his 2022 free agency tour.

The score remained knotted 2-2 until the seventh, as Mike Minor settled down following his rough start. After giving up two second-inning runs, Minor wound up making a quality start. He got through six innings with just the two runs given up, though only one was earned. He struck out five and threw 78 pitches.

In the seventh, Ryan O’Hearn came off the bench to pinch hit, and he swatted an enormous 431-foot blast to dead center field. It scored two and put the Royals in front, 4-2. Kansas City would add another run in the eighth, as Michael A. Taylor hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.

A key stretch came in the home half of the seventh, right after the Royals took a 4-2 lead. The Brewers put the first two men on and had bases loaded with one out, but Kyle Zimmer came out of the bullpen and induced a double play to extinguish the fire. He threw just one pitch. Scott Barlow handled the eighth. Greg Holland finished the night off with his sixth save, striking out his 500th batter as a Royal in the process.

The only other interesting news that came from today didn’t have anything to do with the game, as Danny Duffy and Brady Singer were both placed on the IL this afternoon. As of right now, the pitching rotation consists of Mike Minor and Brad Keller, who both have an ERA north of 5.40, and Carlos Hernandez, who has only made a couple of big league starts. So... good luck with that, I guess? I wonder if you see a Jackson Kowar call-up soon. That makes sense.

The Royals are 38-55. They look for a two-game sweep tomorrow at 1:15 pm.