KANSAS CITY — Vinnie Pasquantino doubled, homered and drove in five runs Tuesday night as the Kansas City Royals topped the Washington Nationals 8-5 to reach the .500 mark for the third 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 — to expand Kansas City’s lead to 4-0.
Pasquantino opened the scoring with a first-inning sacrifice fly and capped the Royals scoring with an RBI double in the seventh.
On Witt’s soft groundout between the plate and the mound, Garcia hustled from first to third base before scoring on Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly as Kansas City took a 1-0 lead in a hitless first inning.
Pasquantino leads the Royals 32 two-out RBI and ranks second in the majors with 23 go-ahead RBI.
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 5⅔ innings, his sixth consecutive start permitting fewer than three runs.
Lucas Erceg earned his second save with a hitless ninth.
In 5⅓ innings, Parker (7-13) allowed five runs on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts. In his past three starts — all losses — Parker has allowed 17 runs in 14⅓ innings.
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 fly ball, cutting the Royals lead to 4-2.
Abrams and James Wood collected two-out RBI in the seventh. Wood recorded his fourth straight multihit game.
Nationals RHP Jake Irvin (8-7, 4.90 ERA) opposes Royals RHP Seth Lugo (8-6, 3.46) in this afternoon’s series finale.
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