Junior Caminero is really good at hitting home runs. At the moment he does it every night. Seth Lugo got a strikeout to start the game before Jonathan Aranda singled in front of Caminero. Junior then smashed the first pitch deep to left and gone to get Tampa Bay an immediate two run lead. That is his sixth game in a row with a home run and he is the youngest to reach such a streak passing another Jr. of the Griffey variety. Caminero turns 23 on Sunday and already has 76 career homers.
Lugo settled in after that tough first inning and looked pretty sharp. That 2-0 lead for the Rays stayed for much of the game as Shane McClanahan was also dealing. He also got out of a couple of innings where the Royals got something started and then hit into double plays. The Rays did nearly score a run in the 4th when Chandler Simpson led off the inning with a single. He then tried to swipe second base with Taylor Walls up and one out. Carter Jensen was having none of that and gunned him down for his second caught stealing of the night. He has now thrown out more than 40% of runners at 15 for 36 and is only one caught stealing behind the MLB leaders at 16 William Contreras and Shea Langeliers. Walls hit a double that would have scored him if Jensen had not thrown him out.
Seth did get the quality start for the Royals but also gave up one more run in the 6th before he exited. Cedric Mullins came up with two outs in the sixth and hit a flyball to right that seemed to have a balloon-like ability to float forever. He got enough backspin on it and then let the hot air do the rest. It was 98 mph off the bat. So, Lugo out with a line of 6IP, 9H, 0BB, 6K, and 3ER. He was going to need the offense to get going to avoid taking the loss. McClanahan also went six with 3 hits and no walks. The Royals bats hit a couple of loud flyouts to the track, but he was mostly in control the whole game. They are limiting his throwing lately and pulled him after just 69 pitches.
One nice thing from this game was another good outing for Matt Strahm. That’s five outings in a row without giving up a run and he has only had one hit and two walks in those five innings. Newly arrived Jose Cuas took the 8th and did not have as clean an inning. He did look okay but gave up an RBI single to Mullins to push the lead to 4-0. Cuas did come back out for ninth and that inning went smoothly.
Kansas City finally got a threat going in the 8th against Lawrence, Kansas native Garrett Cleavinger. Nick Loftin walked to start things off. Then Tyler Tolbert popped out on a bunt to first base. Why is he bunting when the team is down 4? Michael Massey got a bloop to drop and move Loftin into scoring position. Now with two on and one out, Lane Thomas got frustrated getting rung up on what he thought was a check swing ball four. Instead, it was a strikeout and the end of the day for Cleavinger as the Rays brought in Kevin Kelly to face Bobby Witt Jr. It looked like the bases might be loaded again when Bobby hit a weak grounder to the left side. With his speed that is often an infield single. Kelly got to it quickly and threw a strike to barely beat him and end the inning.
The Royals final chance started well with Jac Caglianone getting a lead-off single. Kameron Misner pinch hit for Starling Marte and hit what looked like a nice easy fielder’s choice, however, Richie Palacios at second base made an error to make it first and second with no one out. Salvador Perez promptly grounded into a double play, the third of those on the night, and Jensen lined out to center to end the game and his hitting streak.
Now with the worst record in the American League, the Royals are starting to make a run at Colorado for the worst in all of baseball. The dog days of summer indeed.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com ’
