Royals rough up Dallas Keuchel in 7-2 win

It took two hours to get started, and it didn’t end until after 12:30 am, but the Royals beat the White Sox, 7-2, to open a three-game set.

Carlos Hernandez continued his recent trend of being a stud, firing six innings of two-run baseball. He allowed just two runs, both in his last inning of work after the Royals had built a 7-0 lead. This game started almost two hours after its scheduled time due to rain in the area, but Hernandez was very sharp, particularly early on. He’s been really, really good this year. It’s always nice when these things happen in a positive way.

As for the offense, they went to work early on Chicago’s Dallas Kuechel, a familiar foe. Kansas City got two in the second on a Michael A. Taylor groundout and an Andrew Benintendi triple. They added four more in the third, as Adalberto Mondesi ripped a single with the bases loaded that wound up scoring three after a throwing error. Taylor followed that up with an RBI single of his own, making the score 6-0.

Taylor picked up his third RBI of the night in the fifth on a fantastic, long at bat, getting an RBI single with two outs. 7-0.

Just about everyone in the lineup besides Hunter Dozier (who was 0-for-4 and left 100 runners on base) had a good night. Whit Merrifield and Nicky Lopez went 0-for-9 at the top of the lineup, but the middle part of the order completely destroyed Chicago. Salvador Perez had two hits. So did Carlos Santana. Michael A. Taylor and Andrew Benintendi had three, with Benintendi finishing a home run short of the cycle. In all, the Royals had 12 hits, and none of them were by Merrifield or Lopez.

Perez left the game after taking a foul ball off his neck. It was precautionary. Knowing him, he’s probably already begging Mike Matheny to let him play tomorrow.

Hernandez is now 5-1 after picking up another win and another quality start. Domingo Tapia and Josh Staumont both fired shutout innings of relief. So did Tyler Zuber, which surprised just about everyone in attendance. 7-2 for a final score.

The Royals are 60-74. Daniel Lynch heads to the hill tomorrow to take on Reynaldo Lopez in a 6:10 pm start.