Royals blow out White Sox, 9-1 on Salvador Perez’s birthday

Chicago put Lance Lynn on the mound. He is one of the most aggressive pitchers in baseball with over a 70% strike thrower. With that aggressiveness comes some backlash. He is also giving up a .320 average on his first pitch a perfect combo for Kansas City’s red-hot offense to jump on.

Royals jumped to an early lead with Vinnie Pasquntino hitting a double down the left field line. Salvador Perez followed that up with a double down the left-field line, driving in his twenty-first RBI of the season. Kansas City batted around sending ten players to the plate. They ended the inning whit Nick Pratto, Matt Duffy, and Michael Massy all driving in runs in the bottom of the first inning. For the fifth straight game, the Royals scored in the first inning. They ended the inning with a 4-0 lead.  

Kansas City was aided by the long ball with three different players going yard on the day. 

Massey was the first player to send the ball into the fountains. He slugged a four-seam fastball that hung over the middle of the plate to deep center field over 415 feet. That was his first home run of the year and it gave the Royals a 5-1 lead. The following inning Nick Pratto hit a two-run home run near the right field foul pole. This ball was another four-seam fastball that hung over the middle of the plate.  

In the bottom of the sixth inning MJ Melendez grounded into a fielder’s choice to drive in Pasquantino.

The last ruin of the game was scored in the bottom of the seventh inning. Edward Olivares homered to left center field sending the ball 418 feet giving Kansas City an insurmountable eight-run lead. 

A third run would score after a ball went in and out of the glove of the second baseman. He ran out to deep right field. 

Royals manager Matt Quatraro said he was happy about the swing decisions by the offense and that the entire lineup was involved in the nine-run victory. 

“I thought the guys did a good job at their approach, picking a side I think they were looking for something to drive,” Quatraro said. “They were able to execute it, which was great and they used the whole field the home runs obviously were big and it was just nice that it was production up and down we had some walks some tough at-bats that we fought through and really positive night overall for the offense.”   

Keller did not have a great day as he got off to a rocky start. Keller had command issues to start the game. Keller started the game with back-to-back walks. This is despite the fact Chicago is one of the least-walked teams in baseball.  His lack of command all year makes him one of the least efficient pitchers in all of baseball. In the first inning, Keller threw 21 pitches with only nine of them being strikes. 

After the first inning, he only walked two more batters for the remaining four innings. However, his walk rate continues to plague him.

Kansas City has a chance to win their first home series of the year Thursday night. First pitch is at 1:10.