Kansas City Royals shut-out Tampa Bay Rays 8-0 at Kauffman Stadium – MLB Update
Kansas City Royals shut-out Tampa Bay Rays 8-0 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on Monday, June 25 in the opening game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Royals took another step in the right direction on Monday evening, improving their record to 32-39. Starting pitcher Luke Hochevar showed just what he is capable of as he played a key role in deciding the outcome of the clash.
According to sources, Manager Ned Yost had talked to him about using his three core pitches. Hochevar listened to the skipper’s advice and the change he made to his technique is already paying off.
"In the first few innings, I just felt uncomfortable out there," he said. "Everything they were hitting was dropping. Unfortunately, they were falling everywhere."
Striking-out eight Tampa Bay’s batters, the right hander secured his second career shut-out to improve to 5-7 as the Royals humiliated the Rays to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Mike Moustakas looked in commanding form as he doubled to deep right in the
first inning and Alex Gordon scored to put the Royals 1-0 ahead.
“I guess I have to come up with a better word than fantastic, tremendous and great. He was phenomenal," Yost said after the match. "The results have been dramatically improved since he got back to his three core pitches. He's starting to show exactly what
he can do."
Yuniesky Betancourt made the most of scoring opportunities, helping the Royals extend their lead to 3-0 in the third. Jeff Francoeur also made his presence felt with an RBI single to right.
However, Eric Hosmer was the leader of the pack as he homered to centre in the eighth to end the game on an extremely positive note for the Royals.
"That was a great outing by Hoch," said Eric Hosmer in a post game interview. “He was in the zone, he was pounding pitches. He was great."
Rays’ starting pitcher Alex Cobb looked completely out of sorts. He gave up thirteen hits to lose for the fourth time in five starts. The Royals managed to dominate the Rays as the club will be looking to carry their winning momentum forward.
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