Royals hitters take advantage of Coors Field, sloppy Rockies defense in 14-10 win

Coors Field has a reputation for being the best hitter’s park in the game, making it the perfect pick-me-up for the dormant Royals offense. The bats woke up, taking advantage of the high altitude, spacious outfield, and hilariously bad Rockies defense to score a season-high in runs in a 14-10 win over Colorado Friday night.

The Royals jumped on Rockies starter Kyle Freeland right away on a two-run home run by Andrew Benintendi, his second of the year. But the Rockies took the lead in the second inning when a routine groundout to third turned into an error when Hunter Dozier lost the throw in the sun. That opened the floodgates to three runs scored in the inning to make it 3-2 Rockies.

But the Royals stormed right back in the third with four runs of their own, capped by a two-run triple by Bobby Witt Jr. off the top of the wall.

The Royals added two more in the fifth to make it 8-3, which seemed to put Zack Greinke in line for his first win of the season. But he labored in the fifth inning, and Mike Matheny left him in after a mound visit, seemingly to get him to qualify for the win. Greinke would give up a two-run double after that, earning a hook with the Royals clinging to an 8-7 lead.

The Royals would pour on four runs in the seventh, including a triple by Andrew Benintendi, who would end up a double short of hitting for the cycle. The next inning, pinch hitter Ryan O’Hearn absolutely destroyed a Carlos Estevez pitch into the stratosphere for a two-run home run to make it 14-9. Hunter Dozier also collected his fifth hit, a career-high for him and the first five-hit game by a Royals hitter since Andrew Benintendi last September 15 against Oakland.

Sam Hilliard would homer off Gabe Speier to make it 14-10, but Scott Barlow would come in to shut things down for his third save. It was a sloppy game - each team was charged with two errors with numerous mental errors and misplays, and two very wild pitches by Royals pitchers. It was a wild offensive game - the two teams combined for 24 runs and 30 hits. And it was a long game - it took nearly four hours. But the Royals were able to persevere and improve to 3-4 on this road trip and 11-19 overall.

The two teams will face off again tomorrow night at 7:10 CT with Carlos Hernández against Germán Márquez.