Royals dominate on all fronts in 9-3 win over Pirates

Four Royals end up with home runs!

In their first game in Kauffman Stadium this month, the Kansas City Royals matched their home win total from all of last month. Hopefully, it will be a sign of good things to come, as the Royals’ 9-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates was the sort of top-to-bottom victory that makes for a very enjoyable viewing experience.

The night started with Royals starter Noah Cameron setting the tone by striking out two of the first Pirates. He would end the night with perhaps the most impressive start of his young career, going seven strong innings, striking out seven, and only walking one.

Cameron’s only runs given up came off the bat of Tommy Pham via a two-run home run, one of three very nice contributions Pham made in a sort of “Tommy Pham revenge game” situation. Otherwise, Cameron was great, and cameras caught him looking into the crowd as they gave him an ovation after his final out.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Royals unleashed home run after home run. Rex and Ryan exhibited some wonder that the Royals had been without a multi-home run game at home since last August. On one hand, that is a long time. On the other, well, have you seen the Royals offense this year?

Vinnie Pasquantino kicked things off in the bottom of the first inning with a solo shot to left field.

After the Royals had scored three runs in the third inning from traditional “keep the line moving” ways, Bobby Witt Jr. crushed an opposite-field blast to score Jonathan India and place the Royals firmly in the lead with a 6-2 score.

Captain Salvador Perez was not to be outdone, as he contributed a solo shot of his own in the fifth inning to put Kansas City ahead 7-2.

And, finally, Nick Loftin—who had four batted balls at over 100 MPH—capped it off with a nice home run to give the Royals a 9-2 lead in the eighth inning.

The Pirates would claw one run back in the top of the ninth inning, but that would be it.

It was a good game, and if you’ll allow me a bit of editorializing here, I’m just glad that the Royals are not the Pirates right now. These Pirates are the 2009 Royals, which was an experience that sucked for Royals fans four out of five games; the fact that it decidedly did not suck every fifth game almost made it worse. Kansas City may not make the playoffs this year, but they did last year, and they could with some reasonable bounces in their favor the second half of the season.

In any case, Kansas City now stands 44-48, and all of a sudden they’ve won five of their last seven games. A sweep would bring them within two of .500. Let’s get it done.