The Kansas City Royals continue to scuffle on their six-game road trip.
On Saturday, familiar offensive issues resulted in a 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium — KC’s sixth loss in a row, and second straight in this three-game edition of the I-70 Series.
This time, unlike Friday night’s 5-4 defeat in 11 innings, the Royals let a fair number of scoring opportunities slip through their grasp.
Kansas City had a baserunner in seven of Saturday afternoon’s nine innings. The Royals’ best chances came in the second inning. With the bases loaded but two away, third baseman Maikel Garcia hit into a fielder’s choice.
An inning later, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. hit a leadoff single. It was another chance to start a potential rally — but Witt was thrown out while attempting to steal second base. And then Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez went down in succession.
The Royals would finally score in the fifth. Pasquantino hit a two-out, RBI single to tie the game at 1. It was just his eighth hit with runners in scoring position (RISP) this season.
Yet the Cardinals responded quickly. In the bottom of the fifth, St. Louis added on when Victor Scott II and Masyn Winn drove in runs.
Scott hit a grounder to Pasquantino at first with the infield in. Pasquantino gloved the ball and threw it home. But his throw was slightly offline, enabling Cardinals second baseman Thomas Saggese to score.
Winn also hit a sacrifice fly, and all three of those runs were charged to Royals starting pitcher Noah Cameron.
Cameron took the loss but logged a quality start in defeat. The St. Joseph, Missouri native allowed five hits and three runs and recorded four strikeouts in six innings.
There wasn’t a lot of hard contact off Cameron. He induced 42 swings and 12 whiffs while relying primarily on his fastball and changeup. A pair of sac flies were the difference in the game.
The Royals finished 1-for-6 with RISP and left seven men on base Saturday. They have a .669 team OPS (on-base plus slugging) in such situations this season.
Cardinals right-hander Kyle Leahy earned his fifth victory of the year. He allowed one run across six innings.
Alec Burleson’s late RBI single made it a three-run game. He had two RBIs, one of three Cardinals to drive in runs against Royals’ pitchers Saturday.
Royals right fielder Jac Caglianone got a run back with a solo homer in the ninth inning.
What’s next: Royals right-hander Stephen Kolek (1-0, 6.75 ERA) will start Sunday’s I-70 Series finale opposite St. Louis righty Andre Pallante (4-3, 4.46 ERA). First pitch is set for 1:15 p.m. Central Time at Busch Stadium.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com ’
