KC Royals: Top 5 Royals moments from May 2019

The KC Royals didn’t have a dominating offense in 2019. But, in an early May day game, the club exploded. Alex Gordon led the way.

Saturday, May 4, 2019 marked the 34th game of the season for the KC Royals. Their losing ways already established, the Royals were in last place and had lost twice as many games as they’d won. The club was averaging less than 4½ runs per game and had scored in double-digits once. The offense wasn’t a disaster, but it left much to be desired.

Then came a Royal explosion on a cool, cloudy Detroit day.

The Royals, fresh from a heartbreaking one-run loss to Detroit the night before — they stranded the tying run in scoring position in the 9th — mauled Tigers’ starter Tyson Ross for five runs in the first 1.1 innings of the contest. Kansas City led 7-2 after three innings and made it 9-2 after five.

A victory seemingly safe, the Royals wanted more…and they got it. KC batted around and sent 11 men to the plate in the eighth to score another six runs and stretch their lead to 15-2. The outburst extinguished any doubt about the outcome and capped what would prove to be the club’s biggest offensive output of the season.

Although Kelvin Gutierrez had four hits to lead KC, it was the rejuvenated Alex Gordon who provided most of the Royals’ punch. On his way to atoning for his disappointing recent seasons, Gordon went 3 for 5 to raise his average to .299, smashed a two-run homer to deep left, and drove in five runs and scored two.

Newcomer Homer Bailey notched his third win with a decent six-inning start and the bullpen, which would become a KC sore spot as the season went on, gave up only a run. Offensive fireworks and solid pitching made this game one of KC’s best May moments.

In a mid-May KC Royals home game, a rookie and a veteran both reached exciting milestones in a lopsided win. It was a memorable night for Nicky Lopez and Whit Merrifield.

As the KC Royals approached mid-May, it was becoming painfully obvious that a free agent signing was failing. Chris Owings, a utility man brought aboard in one of General Manager Dayton Moore’s most inexplicable acquisitions, couldn’t hit a lick but kept finding his way into Manager Ned Yost‘s lineups.

At the same time, a top Royals’ prospect was rapidly approaching major league readiness at AAA Omaha. After hitting a cumulative .308 with nine homers and 53 RBI’s for Omaha and AA Northwest Arkansas the season before, Nicky Lopez was torching Pacific Coast League pitching with a .353/.457/500 slash and .957 OPS. And he could play shortstop and second base, the kind of versatility that endeared the struggling Owings to Yost and Moore.

But for whatever reason, Moore wasn’t quite ready to bring Lopez to Kansas City; then, in a stunning change of heart almost immediately after saying Lopez wouldn’t be coming soon, Moore summoned the fifth-round 2016 draft choice to KC on May 14 and Yost wasted no time putting him in the lineup. Lopez made his first major league start that night.

After going 0-3 with a walk against the Rangers and facing in the seventh inning what would likely be his final at-bat of the evening (KC held a big lead over the Rangers), Lopez lined Ariel Jurado‘s first pitch into left for his first major league hit, scoring Whit Merrifield from third for his first big league RBI.

And speaking of Merrifield, he was on base by virtue of his 500th career hit, a run-scoring double off Jurado immediately before Lopez singled him home.

The 11-5 victory over the Rangers was indeed a milestone night for rookie Lopez and veteran Merrifield. And Lopez earned the post-victory Salvy Splash Merrifield gave him.

Whit Merrifield put on a batting show and Danny Duffy cooled the dangerous bats of the Houston Astros in leading the KC Royals to an easy early May win.

Well on his way to leading the major leagues in hits for the second straight season, Whit Merrifield had perhaps his best month of 2019 in May. His 10 doubles, four triples and 17 RBI’s were all season highs; his 36 May hits shared first with June; his three home runs were his second-best of the year, and his .305 average was his third best.

And if the club’s May 7th 12-2 whipping of the powerful, eventual American League champion Houston Astros wasn’t Merrifield’s best game of the season, it certainly ranked among his finest of the year…and of his career.

Merrifield, batting in his customary leadoff spot and playing second base, flew out to left field in his first at-bat.

He lined a triple to the left-center gap in the third.

A run-scoring single followed in the fourth.

Another single came in the sixth.

Then, to cap off a four-for-five night, Merrifield drilled a 1-0 seventh-inning pitch from Framber Valdez for a grand slam home run that scored Ryan O’Hearn, Chris Owings and Martin Maldonado. The slam, the first of his career, gave the club a seven-run lead en route to its 10-run win, and complemented the grand slam O’Hearn hit in the third. (For good measure, Merrifield also stole the seventh of his season’s 20 stolen bases).

And Danny Duffy’s excellent six-plus innings helped secure the win. In one of the better starts of his 7-6 season, Duffy went 6.2 innings, struck out five, lowered his ERA to 3.06 and limited the Astros to two runs in setting the table for Glenn Sparkman‘s shut down of Houston over the final frames.

It was a fine night for Merrifield and Duffy…and, of course, the Royals.

A terrible April put the KC Royals in last place in the American League Central. A doubleheader sweep on May Day was a welcome, albeit brief, respite from the club’s losing ways.

The KC Royals are known for slow starts triggered by disappointing Aprils. Last season was no different — April was the club’s worst month, its 7-19 record laying the foundation for another lost season. The 2-1 March that gave the Royals first place in the AL Central meant nothing as their awful April dragged toward May.

The false hope of March resurfaced for a day on May 1, when Kansas City hosted Tampa Bay for a rare doubleheader. The Royals won both games, a feat uncharacteristic of the 2019 team because it marked one of only 13 times the club won two or more games in a row. (They promptly lost two in a row after the twin-bill sweep). The games were uncharacteristic for other reasons: both victories featured excellent KC pitching, the club took an early lead in the first game and held on to win, and the Royals got a lopsided win in the nightcap.

Kansas City scored three runs in the first inning of the opener — Whit Merrifield led off with a double, stole second, then scored on Adalberto Mondesi‘s fourth homer of the season, and Alex Gordon scored on Kelvin Gutierrez’s sacrifice grounder. Surprisingly, and luckily, those three runs were all KC would require, as Jakob Junis, Jake Diekman and Ian Kennedy held the Rays to two runs despite the fact the Royals managed only one more hit and scored no more runs.

Junis, who started and went 6.1 innings to earn his third win, struggled a bit, giving up six hits and striking out only two. He gave the Rays their only two runs of the game in the second, then shut them down until Diekman took over in the seventh and Kennedy closed the Rays out for his second save as the Royals’ emerging closer.

The Royals had it easier in the nightcap. They scored all eight of their runs in the first four innings; Tampa Bay didn’t score until the ninth and KC cruised to a six-run win.

Five Royals (Merrifield, Mondesi, Jorge Soler, Gutierrez and Billy Hamilton) had two hits apiece; Gutierrez hit a homer and drove in three runs and Soler drove in two. Mondesi stole two bases.

Glenn Sparkman, who would struggle to a 4-11, 6.02 season, gave KC his second-best game of the campaign (his best was a complete game shutout victory against the White Sox in July) — he gave up just three hits, struck out six, walked only one, and held the Rays scoreless for seven innings.

The 3-2 and 8-2 victories made a good point in a bad season. The Royals did what they had to do in winning two very different games, making the May Day twin-bill sweep one of the month’s biggest moments.

The fierce inter-division rivalry that consumed the KC Royals and New York Yankees in the ’70’s and early ’80’s has cooled a bit — rarely now do the two teams meet in meaningful games with championship implications. But that doesn’t mean they no longer relish beating each other.

Proof that there is no quit in these clubs when the face-off lies in a May 26th game in Kansas City, a Sunday contest seemingly well in the Royals’ hands until a startling ninth inning New York comeback forced the game to extra innings. The game’s drama matched the close battles that characterized the old rivalry.

The contest seemed destined after five innings for an easy Royals’ win — KC scored three runs in both the second and fifth innings and led the Yanks 7-1 after five. By the time the fifth frame concluded, Martin Maldonado, Ryan O’Hearn, Hunter Dozier, and Jorge Soler had all homered to account for the Royals’ runs. Danny Duffy, pitching one of his best games of the year, had allowed New York only a run.

But after Duffy retired the first two batters in the sixth, Adalberto Mondesi’s throwing error allowed Aaron Hicks to reach base; Gary Sanchez followed with a single, and Gleyber Torres a three-run homer, to make it 7-4. After Duffy struck out former Royal Kendrys Morales to end the inning, Wily Peralta and Jake Diekman held the Yankees scoreless in the seventh and eighth.

It was the Yankee ninth that gave the game the flavor of the epic battles these teams waged at their rivalry’s heights. Ian Kennedy, increasingly establishing himself as the KC closer, retired Morales to start the inning, then gave up singles to Clint Frazier and Gio Urshela before striking out Brett Gardner for the second out.

DJ LeMahieu then singled home Frazier to make it 7-5; Kennedy walked Luke Voit to load the bases and gave up a two-run, game-tying single to Hicks. Sanchez flew to right to end the inning.

Nestor Cortes pitched the bottom of the ninth for New York and almost equaled Kennedy’s poor effort: With two outs, he gave up singles to Gordon and Hunter Dozier and walked Soler. O’Hearn, however, popped a 2-2 pitch to second, forcing extra innings.

Kevin McCarthy took over for KC in the 10th; a walk to Morales was his only mistake and the Yankees went quietly without scoring.

New York then put the game in Jonathan Holder‘s hands. Martin Maldonado worked Holder for a full count before striking out swinging. Billy Hamilton then walked and stole second. Nicky Lopez grounded to third for the second out, pinning the Royals’ 10th inning hopes on Whit Merrifield, who was uncharacteristically hitless in five at-bats.

Searching for his first hit at the game’s most critical moment, Merrifield worked the count to 2-1. He then punched a single between short and third; Hamilton raced home and Kansas City walked off with a nail-biting victory.

For its sheer excitement and a reminder of what the bitter Royals-Yankees rivalry used to be, Merrifield’s walk-off single to salvage the win over the Yanks ranks as the biggest Royals’ moment of May.

Five wins provided the biggest moments in the month of May for the KC Royals. Superb performances by a rookie and several veterans, and a stellar month from Whit Merrifield, provided the foundation for some exciting times in a disappointing season.