What a day it has been for the Kansas City Royals.
Prior to the big news that the Royals called up Eric Hosmer, they took to the field for a day game against the Orioles. Bruce Chen was on the mound to face one of his many former teams and put together a solid outing going seven full innings and allowing just one run on five hits. It looked like Chen could have been in for a tough day as Baltimore strung together two singles and a walk to take a 1-0 lead in the first, but Chen cruised along from there. The Panama native finished with five strikeouts and just two walks as he lowered his ERA to 3.59, while improving his record to 4-1, including six consecutive wins at home dating back to last season.
Kansas City had the offense going today as well, as the Royals combined for 12 hits including 5 doubles. On the season the Royals now have 76 doubles which leads all of baseball. Many were doubles that seemed to toy with the foul line on both sides of the park before finding a spot in fair territory.
Chris Getz lead off the bottom of the first inning with a single and then stole second as the Royals were off and running, scoring four runs to take a 4-1 lead after the first frame. Getz went 2-for-4 on the day with an RBI.
It was a 8-1 lead after just four innings as the offense roughed up Orioles starter Chris Tillman who lasted just 3.2 innings, giving up eight runs on ten hits. With the loss he fell to 1-3 this season, sporting an ERA of 7.16.
Melky Cabrera was the star of the day at the plate as he batted 3-for-4 with 4 RBI. In the eighth inning he hit his third home run of the season which gave us the 9-1 final score. Cabrera now has 20 RBI on the season, becoming the fourth Royals player to reach that mark.
Baltimore fell to 14-16, while Kansas City is 17-14 and sits 4.5 games behind Cleveland. The Royals welcome Oakland tomorrow evening for the beginning of a three game set. Game begins tomorrow evening at 7:10 with Sean O`Sullivan (1-1 3.43 ERA) facing Gio Gonzalez (3-2 2.70).
Buck Night. Fireworks. David DeJesus. ERIC HOSMER. Be there.