Lopez fuels Royals to sweep over first place Brewers

After taking down the first place Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday afternoon, the Royals used a strong start from Brad Keller and clutch hit by Nicky Lopez to complete a brief two-game sweep in Milwaukee. The 6-3 win became Kansas City’s first sweep since June 1st against the Pirates.

Following back-to-back outings in which he allowed three runs in 14 innings (1.93 ERA), Keller took the ball and looked to limit the red-hot Brewers. Through the first three innings, he did just that by retiring nine of the first 12 Milwaukee hitters.

In the top of the fourth, Kansas City broke the scoreless tie on an opposite field, RBI-double from Andrew Benintendi. The RBI was Benintendi’s 37th of the season. Shortly after, Hunter Dozier continued his impressive stretch with an RBI-single to left field — giving the Royals a 2-0 lead.

Back on the mound, Keller managed to hold the Brewers scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning. Behind a walk, pair of singles and a double, Milwaukee took a 3-2 lead. However, the Royals came back swinging in the top half of the sixth inning.

With runners at first and second and one out, Dozier poked his second hit of the day to left field — tying the game back up at three. A few moments later, Kansas City loaded the bases with its eight-hole hitter coming to the dish in Lopez. On a 1-0 count, Lopez smashed a double to the right field wall to score two more and give the Royals the lead back at 5-3.

With a two-run cushion, Keller settled back into his groove. Before he was pulled, the right-hander worked through 6 ²⁄₃ innings with six strikeouts and allowed just three runs. It marked his third-straight quality start. Jake Brentz came on and struck out Christian Yelich for the final out of the seventh.

In the top of the eighth, Jorge Soler extended Kansas City’s lead with a mammoth 438-foot shot over the bullpen in left-center field. It was Soler’s ninth home run of the season and second in as many days.

Kyle Zimmer and Scott Barlow combined to shut down Milwaukee in the final innings and the Royals walked away with a sweep.

Kansas City, 39-55, will enjoy an off-day tomorrow before returning home for a three-game set with the Detroit Tigers. Kris Bubic will go on Friday night with a first pitch set for 7:10 p.m. CT.