Royals send off Wainwright in a farewell full of fireworks, win 12-8

Adam Wainwright started his 404th game as a big league pitcher tonight, and likely his last in Kauffman Stadium. The Royals gave him the shortest start of his career. He went 1+ innings, but never recorded an out in the second leaving after giving up 8 runs, all earned. The Royals lineup feasted in innings one and two.

Garcia and Witt both singled to start the first. Salvy and Melendez then hit back to back doubles to drive both of them in, along with Perez. Then Olivares singled MJ home before Beaty hit into a double play to end the threat. In the second, Nelson Velazquez lead off by hitting a home run in his first plate appearance as a Royal after being traded for Jose Cuas. He was followed by a three run homer by Bobby Witt and a solo shot from Salvador Perez. The only bad news was that Maikel Garcia’s second hit of the evening ended with his left arm dangling awkwardly as he ran to first. He was replaced by Matt Duffy for the remainder of the game as the team said Garcia had “left upper-body discomfort”, whatever that means.

After the 9-0 lead at the end of two, the Royals started making the game much more interesting than KC fans would have liked. Dylan Coleman walked three and hit a batter in the first, but left the bases loaded and didn’t give up a run thanks to a double play. Angel Zerpa was not quite so lucky. After a one-two-three second, Zerpa gave up a 3 RBI double to Wilson Contreras in the 3rd to cut the lead to six. Then in the 5th he allowed a 2-run homer to Tyler O’Neill and the lead was down to four. That was it for Zerpa, but not for the lead being chipped away as James McArthur allowed a run on a Lars Nootbaar double in the second in the sixth. Luckily Nootbar tried to advance on a bad throw in from the outfield and came off the bag at third to end up getting out. At 9-6 it was starting to feel like the Royals might let that huge beginning slip away. The back-and-forth was far from over though.

Momentum shifted back to the Royals in the 7th when Massey doubled followed by a Perez single to drive him home. Then again in the 8th, the Royals got two base runners from a Velazquez single and an Isbel walk after Blanco pinch ran for Velazquez and stole second and third. Duffy drove them both home to extend the lead back out to six.

All the Royals needed was three outs to seal the deal, and a six run lead felt safe. Then the Cardinals chipped into again with a two-run shot from Contreras after Gorman was hit by a pitch to start the inning. But that was all the Cards could get in the ninth as Heasley ended it on a line drive out from Burleson and a double play that Jordan Walker grounded into for outs two and three.

The Royals are now 38-80 and have a seven game home win streak. One more with the Cardinals tomorrow before the weird Sunday off day. Your starters tomorrow are Cole Ragans and Steven Matz beginning at 6:15 in the evening.