Bobby Witt Jr and Jonathan India both hit home runs.
New city, same offense as in Texas. The Royals are hitting DINGERS NOW BABY!
Bobby Witt Jr took some ill-advised swings at up-and-inside pitches to start off his game in the first inning, but he was gifted a middle-middle curveball that he blasted beyond the left field fence to score the first run of the game.
The Royals continued hitting dingers in the fifth inning. Freddy Fermin and Nick Loftin walked to lead off the inning, and Jonathan India absolutely massacred a 95mph fastball for a three-run homer. Man, homers are nice. Instant runs, you know? Maikel Garcia continued his torrid pace with a double right after, but Vinnie Pasquantino had a ground out up the middle to end the inning.
In what I’m sure is a little déjà vu for Padres fans, in the third inning Michael Lorenzen uncorked a wild pitch against Fernando Tatis Jr that made him fall down to avoid being hit in the head. It was not a good inning for Lorenzen, with two walks, but he did not allow a run. It really did not look intentional…just a fastball that got away from Lorenzen. I’d understand some hard feelings though.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Royals defense made itself known, in a way. Trenton Brooks hit a double that bounced a few times off the weird right field corner and in between Jac Caglianone’s legs. It was a double either way, but it happened. Tyler Wade hit a grounder to the hole in short, but Bobby Witt Jr was able to knock it down. Fernando Tatis Jr hit a sinking line drive to center field that Kyle Isbel made a diving catch on. Luis Arraez hit a line drive single that no one was going to stop, so unfortunately a run scored anyway. But only one run! Lorenzen got Manny Machado to strike out looking, and it was pretty sweet to watch.
The Padres continued scoring in the sixth and seventh innings though. A single from Xander Bogaerts knocked out Lorenzen in the sixth, and Angel Zerpa replaced him. He gave up two singles to allow one run to make it 4-2. Lucas Erceg came out for the seventh and collapsed under a hit parade – walk, ground rule double, single, single. Erceg finally got the third out on a groundout, but the hit parade evened up the score at 4-4.
The Royals responded in the eighth with a hit parade of their own. Garcia continued his blasting, torrid, red-hot offensive pace (he went 3-5 tonight) with a hard single. Pasquantino followed with a walk (John Rave pinch-ran for him), and then Garcia scored on a Salvador Perez single. Rave stole third base and scored on a Drew Waters single. The Royals plated two more runs to make it 6-4.
In the ninth, Carlos Estévez made it interesting. Machado slapped an opposite field line drive home run to trim the deficit to only one run. But he got the other three guys to pop out for the three outs necessary to end the game.
The Royals ended up with 11 hits, two of them home runs. Four of their runs came via the dinger. The margin for error is much larger when you’re hitting dingers. India and Garcia both went 3-5 and were the engines of the offense, but everyone had a lot of loud contact tonight. Lorenzen had a very Michael Lorenzen-ish line with 5 1⁄3 innings, 2 runs allowed, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts.
With this win, the Royals move back to .500 at 38-38. The Padres drop to 40-35.
The Royals and Padres play again tomorrow on FOX at 6:15pm US Central.