Royals Take Second Game from Diamondbacks

A little closer than the game last night, but they got it done. The Kansas City Royals defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3 on Wednesday night.

The Royals started things off in the top of a second inning with a Mike Moustakas 2-run homer after Lorenzo Cain reached on a single. The Diamondbacks answered back in the third. Ender Inciarte tripled to lead off the inning and was able to score a run on a single by Aaron Hill. After Mark Trumbo singled to put runners at the corners, David Peralta followed up a Miguel Montero strikeout with a run-scoring single to tie up the game.

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Patience at the plate netted the Royals another run in the fourth. Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain had back-to-back walks before Mike Moustakas hit a single to right that scored Gordon. The scoring died off until the ninth inning when Billy Butler led off with a double. Alex Gordon was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. After a Lorenzo Cain sacrifice fly to center moved Billy Butler to third, Mike Moustakas hit a ground ball to Arizona second baseman Aaron Hill who completed the force at second. The second part of the double play was initially called an out as Moustakas slid into first base. The Royals challenged the call and it was overturned which meant that the Royals scored another run as Billy Butler came home from third on the play. Moustakas had all four R.B.I.s for the Royals tonight.

This run proved to be very important as Greg Holland gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth. He started the inning off with a ground out but gave up back to back singles to Cliff Pennington and Aaron Hill to put runners on the corners. Mark Trumbo was able to push Pennington home on a sacrifice fly but Holland then struck out Andy Marte to end the game.

Yordano Ventura went six innings and scattered eight hits while giving up two runs with eight strikeouts and one walk. He left the game with a 3-2 lead and was relieved by Kelvin Herrera in the seventh and Wade Davis in the eighth. Neither gave up any runs and they combined for two strikeouts and a walk. Holland gave up the run in the ninth but still got the save in the end.

The Royals try to complete the sweep tomorrow and are currently only 3.5 games back of Detroit for the division lead.