Kansas City Royals defeat Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 – MLB Update
Kansas City Royals won their fourth consecutive game on Saturday, July 23, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 at Kauffman Stadium.
Joakim Soria put in a brilliant effort in this exciting close match-up.
“You can't say enough about Soria, the job he did," Royals’ manager Ned Yost said. "Bases loaded, nobody out and that's why he's so great. He doesn't get flustered. He doesn't panic. He just continues to make pitches and got us out of it and put us in a
spot where we could win.”
After winning the first of this three-game series by 10-4, the Kansas City Royals once again came with a strategy aimed at exploiting the weaknesses of the Tampa Bay Rays and it eventually paid off.
The Rays, however, came with an uncharacteristic aggression on Saturday when the game kicked off. Jeff Francis gave up three hits and a run in the very first inning as the Rays’ Ben Zobrist scored the first run for the team.
Lest the Royals’ starter get settled in the second, Desmond Jennings scored another run, giving the Rays their second run in the game. Jeff Niemann pitched effectively against the Royals’ offence to maintain the lead.
However, Mike Moustakas compensated for it in the fourth inning as he drove in a two-run RBI to level the score. The game entered an interesting phase when Evan Longoria scored an RBI single in the fifth to give the Rays a 3-2 lead.
Francis who seemed to be in a bit of trouble was relieved by Greg Holland in the sixth, but even Holland could not stop the Rays’ hitters. Johnny Damon doubled to right, enabling Jennings to add to the Rays’ lead, making it 4-2.
Moustakas scored another RBI single in the sixth against Jeff Niemann to bring the Rays’ lead down to 4-3. The Royals’ pitchers then threw extraordinarily good pitches to contain the Rays’ offence.
"All three (pitches) looked like hard four-seamers with a little baby cut to them," Johnson said. "Soria looks like he's throwing a lot harder than he really is. You look up on the scoreboard and see 92 and you think it was harder than that.”
The game, which was going in the Rays favour up until the 9th, was then turned upside down by Alex Gordon as his single levelled the score. Aaron Crow pitched a shut-out 10th inning, as Eric Hosmer scored the decisive fifth run in the
bottom of the 10th inning to give the Royals their win.
The Royals put in a tremendous effort as they managed to restrict the Rays’ offence from scoring crucial runs. The Rays will be looking to improve their performance and try to get their offence going in their next match-up of the regular season.
Tags: