Exasperated writer foils attempt at alliteration as Royals win doubleheader in St. Louis

The Kansas City Royals had a blowout performance in St. Louis today, scoring 14 runs to defeat their cross-state rivals in both games of a doubleheader.

After a first-inning grounderfest in the first game, St. Louis drew first blood in the second frame when Alec Marsh hung a two-strike curveball to Nolan Arenado, who threw it into the sparsely populated stands in center field for a homer. In the third, Marsh started the inning by walking rookie catcher Pedro Paiges, who entered the game with a 66 wRC+ on five pitches. After retiring Macy Winn, Marsh was again caught on a two-strike breaking ball – he tried to do it on the back foot, but it remained high enough for Alec Burleson that he golfed it into the right field bullpen and St. Defeated Lewis 3-0. lead.

On the other end. Kansas City’s offense faltered early against Andre Plante’s fastball-heavy attack as they repeatedly hit balls down the field. For the first four innings, the Royals managed only one baserunner and Pallante needed only 43 pitches to get there. They would eventually reach fifth place. Hunter Renfrow started the inning by lofting a ball down the right field line that went over the fence for a ground-rule double. Freddy Fermin then took a full count before hitting a classic swinging-bunt down the third base line and beating Palante’s throw, giving Kansas City runners at the corners with no outs. MJ Melendez swung a center-right fastball before reaching closer to the same spot on the next pitch. Melendez didn’t miss it, ripping it into the right-center gap for a double, scoring Renfrow and moving Fermin to third. After Nick Loftin struck out, Garrett Hampson hit a shot to the warning track in center field, trading with Melendez and tying the game.

In the bottom of the fifth, Marsh did what you want your pitcher to do after scoring a run by retiring the side in clean order on 11 pitches. With an aggressive return to the field, the Royals took their first lead of the game when Salvador Pérez hit his 15th long ball of the season to straight center. Now holding the lead, Marsh worked a 1-2-3 sixth to end his day. After allowing a homer to Burleson, Marsh retired the last 11 batters he faced.

After Will Smith pitched a scoreless seventh, the Royals had to work on extending the lead. Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr. led off the inning with consecutive singles, Witt’s knock-in moving Garcia to third. Vinny Pasquantino hit a deep shot from the left side past Garcia, cutting the lead to 5-3. Pérez then lined a run to left to easily score Witt, who advanced to second when Cardinals reliever Chris Roycroft sent a slider to the backstop.

With a three-run lead, Sam Long allowed a blooper, but retired the other three batters to complete a scoreless eighth inning. James McArthur entered in the ninth position. After retiring the leadoff man, Paul Goldschmidt countered with a flyball that barely hit the wall down the right field line, cutting the lead to 6–4. The tying run came to the plate after Nolan Arenado singled through the 5-6 hole, but MacArthur got a fly out to Lars Nootbaar to end the ballgame.

Alec Marsh: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 2 HR

Andre Pallante: 6.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 1 HR

Salvador Pérez: 2-4, HR, R, 2 RBI

Nolan Arenado: 2-4, HR, R, RBI

In game two, the Cardinals once again scored a first down in the second inning. For the second time today, he got an opposite field home run that narrowly missed Wall, this time off the bat of Nootbaar. Unlike the first game, the Royals wasted no time responding, Melendez tying the game at one each by slicing the first pitch of the third inning into the right field bullpen. Just before Burleson went to the warning track to end the bottom of the third inning, I realized that Michael Wacha’s jersey was several different shades of brown from sweat. Good thing we got these new jerseys!

The Royals took the lead in the fourth. Witt started the inning with a single that landed to shallow left. Pasquantino then drove a fastball down and inside and crushed it to the base of the wall in right-center. With runners on second and third, Pérez hit a flyball to right that was easily deep enough to score Witt from third. With the Royals now leading 2–1, the Cardinals turned to their bullpen. Matthew Liberatore entered and got the second of the inning, but after going 1-2 on Renfro, he released a slider that Renfro deposited into left field to score Pasquantino.

St. Louis answered in the bottom of the inning. Goldschmidt missed one on a flyout to the warning track, but Nootbaar then shook one off the wall for a double. After Arenado struck out, Nolan Gorman hit a hanging curveball to left-center that hit the outfield wall for a ground rule double and scored Nootbaar. 3-2 Royals.

Kansas City shorted its way to a double in the fifth. Isbell singled up the middle with one out. With Adam Frazier batting, he swiped second. Frazier hit a soft grounder that penetrated through the 5-6 hole, forcing Isbell to wait before advancing to third. He was sent home anyway and was thrown to the plate just before the tag by Willson Contreras. Frazier made a cautious play by going to third because no one was covering the bag. This proved crucial as Witt then followed with a flyball to right field that was easily deep enough to score Frazier. The score was 5–2 to the Royals after Pasquantino struck out to end the inning.

Consistent with this game, St. Louis answered in the bottom of the frame. With two outs, Contreras singled. Burleson then crushed a meatball of a first-pitch changeup, missing a homer to center. A play might have been made at the plate to throw out Contreras, but Witt’s relay throw was far enough down the line, allowing the run to score and Burleson to advance to third. They got another chance when Goldschmidt chased a swinging hit down the third base line that nobody got a chance to play on. Pasquantino made a great play on a ball down the first base line by Nootbaar to end the inning, but the lead remained 5–4.

Can you guess what happened next? Royals scored immediately! Like, as soon as possible. I’m talking about before the scorebug fully loaded on the broadcast, Salvi was crushing the worst pitch in MLB history over the left field bullpen for his second homer of the day. Michael Massey followed with a grounder that somehow got under Gorman’s glove for a single and that was all for Liberatore, who was thrown out of the game after recording as many hits as was allowed.

Wacha’s outing was done, nowhere near his best in five innings. Angel Zerpa was out of the pen first and worked a stress-free 1-2-3 inning. Ryan Fernandez, who had retired the last three Royals hitters in the previous inning, could not do the same in the seventh. Isbell walked five pitches before moving to third when Witt hit a single, where the second baseman usually played. St. Louis turned to John King to stop the bleeding. He failed because Pasquantino grounded one out to where the shortstop normally played. Obviously, he wasn’t playing there, so it worked out and Isbell scored to make it 7-4 Royals.

Because this is actually a college baseball game, the Cardinals immediately started a rally in the bottom of the inning when Dylan Carlson led off the inning with a hard single. Brandon Donovan then hit a chop down the third base line out of Garcia’s reach, leaving St. Louis runners on second and third with no outs. John Schreiber was called in to break up the rally. Contreras bounced a short and the Royals exchanged one run for one out. Schreiber then punched out Burleson and Goldschmidt to maintain a 7-5 lead.

A funny thing happened in eighth grade. Or rather, a strange paucity of things – every team moved down the order. That takes us to the 18th inning of this silly doubleheader. Isbell opened with a liner over the wall in right for his seventh homer of the season. The next three batters went down in order, leaving us in the bottom of the ninth and Kansas City taking an 8-5 lead. MacArthur entered his second innings of the day. Winn led off the inning with a single on a bouncer that probably would have been a double had Garcia not made a spectacular lame stop at third. But MacArthur held on and recorded the last three outs without any drama to win 8–5.

The doubleheader sweep left the Royals score 51-43. This is the first time the Royals have won a series in St. Louis since 2018. They will take tomorrow off before heading to Boston for a three-game set against the Red Sox.

Michael Wacha: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HR

Gordon Graceffo: 3.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 HR

Kyle Isbell: 2-3, HR, BB, 3R, RBI

Lars Nootbaar: 2-4, HR, 2B, 2R, RBI