Arizona Diamondbacks defeat Kansas City Royals 7-2 – MLB Update
The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Kansas City Royals 7-2 on Tuesday, June 21 at the Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Royals opened the scoring in the first innings before the Diamondbacks levelled in the fifth. Alex Gordon scored for the Royals with a massive 403 feet hit, taking his season tally of homers to nine. Wily Mo Pena muscled a 441 feet hit in the fifth innings
to bring Diamondbacks back at level, the score standing at one run each, in which was his first home-run since June 2008.
The innings two through four witnessed some accurate pitching with neither team conceding a run. Starting pitchers from both sides threw for seven innings, with Joe Saunders of the Diamondbacks getting the better of Royals’ Luke Hochevar. Saunders completed
his 50 strike-outs for the season with three in this game. He conceded six hits and two runs at an ERA of 4.35. He managed 66 strikes of his 109 total pitches, earning him his fourth win of the season.
Hochevar, in the same number of innings, leaked eight hits and five runs, including a massive 441 feet Pena hit. His six strike-outs, coming at an ERA of 4.97 weren’t enough for the Royals to stay in contention. His 59 strikes of the total 97 pitches couldn’t
avert his eighth loss for the 2011 season.
The seventh and eighth innings combined allowed the Diamondbacks to score five runs which were a bit too much. The Royals’ relief pitcher, Everett Teaford wasn’t effective either, leaking two runs in the sole innings he pitched in. He was hammered by Chris
Young for a gigantic 420 feet hit which sealed the night for Arizona.
It was a complete team effort by the Diamondbacks as seven batsmen scored in the game. Justin Upton, who also scored a run, was all praise for Pena’s larger-than-life hit.
Diamondbacks’ manager Kirk Gibson, reminded reporters of Pena’s feat in Triple-A said, "That's what we brought him up here for, to turbo it out of here”. The manager analysed that the classic hit made the Royals rethink their plan of action and made their
pitching tight-fisted.
The Diamondbacks are now 40-34 for the season, improving their away record to 18-17. The Royals, however, have slipped to 31-42 with their home-record in balance at 21-21.
Going into the second match of the series on Wednesday, June 22 it will be interesting to see how the Royals, playing at home hit back at the Diamondbacks who seem to have got into some sort of momentum with Pena getting back to hitting-ways.
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