Pasquantino doubles, homers, drives in 5, leading the Royals past the Nationals 8-5

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Vinnie Pasquantino doubled, homered and drove in five runs as the Kansas City Royals topped the Washington Nationals 8-5 to reach the .500 mark for the second time since mid-June.

After a two-out, third-inning walk by Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr.’s infield hit, Pasquantino hit Mitchell Parker’s first-pitch fastball into the second row of the right field stands, a few feet inside the foul pole, expanding Kansas City’s lead to 4-0.

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Pasquantino opened the scoring with a first-inning sacrifice fly and capped the Royals scoring with an RBI double in the seventh.

Jonathan India’s two-run homer extended Kansas City’s lead to 7-2 in the sixth.

Michael Wacha (7-9) allowed two runs on five hits and two walks with three strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings, his sixth consecutive start permitting fewer than three runs.

Lucas Erceg earned his second save with a hitless ninth.

In 5 1/3 innings, Parker (7-13) allowed five runs on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Over his last three starts — all losses — Parker has allowed 17 runs in 14 1/3 innings.

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Leaping at the center field wall, Robert Hassell III robbed Randal Grichuk of a solo home run in the fifth.

In the sixth, CJ Abrams scored when Witt misplayed Paul DeJong’s deep pop fly, cutting the Royals lead to 4-2.

Abrams and James Wood collected two-out RBIs in the seventh. Wood recorded his fourth straight multihit game.

Key moment

On Witt’s soft ground out between the plate and mound, Garcia hustled from first to third before scoring on Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly as Kansas City took a 1-0 lead in a hitless first inning.

Key stat

Pasquantino leads the Royals 32 two-out RBIs and ranks second in the majors with 23 go-ahead RBIs.

Up next

Nationals RHP Jake Irvin (8-7, 4.90 ERA) opposes Royals RHP Seth Lugo (8-6, 3.46)

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Marc Bowman, The Associated Press