Royals win 5-0 over Cardinals

Heading into Friday night’s match-up between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals in what is known as the I-70 series, both teams were in first place in their respective the divisions. That is the first time this has occurred in the history of inter-league play, which began in 1997.

The pitchers for the game were Lance Lynn for the Cardinals and Chris Young for the Royals.

And the Royals, led by home runs, great defense, and a strong pitching performance by Young, were able to defeat the Cardinals 5-0, handing them their second straight shutout loss.

In the first inning, aside from a Matt Carpenter single, the Cardinals were held hit-less. As for the Royals in the bottom half of the first, Alcides Escobar led off with a walk, and with one out, Lorenzo Cain singled. After a pop-out from Eric Hosmer, Kendrys Morales hit a three run home run to right center field, giving the Royals a 3-0 lead early.

During the second inning, despite singles by Randal Grichuk and Yadier Molina, all three outs Young garnered in the top of the second were pop-outs. Both Lynn and Young pitched scoreless half innings in the second, and while the Cardinals could not score in the top of the third, the Royals did.

Cain singled once again, and Morales made Lynn pay by launching a shot deep to right field, and the Royals took an early 5-0 lead.

Both Lynn and Young pitched well into the game, and both would be taken out during the seventh inning. For Young, his final line of the game was: 6 IP 6 H 0 ER 2 BB 2 K. As for Lynn, his final line of the game was:

The top of the seventh inning started with Franklin Morales entering in relief for the Royals, and continued the success of shutting down the Cardinals’ offense, as Jason Heyward, Kolten Wong, and Carpenter all grounded out to end the top half of the inning. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Carlos Villanueva entered in relief for the Cardinals, and pitched a 1-2-3 inning as the game headed to the eighth with the Royals still ahead 5-0.

The top of the eighth inning started with Ryan Madson pitching in relief for the Royals. Matt Holliday led-off, and was hit by a pitch, and with that, his on-base streak improves to 39 straight games, just three shy of tying Albert Pujols’ team record. Matt Adams followed with a force out at second base, and with one out, Jhonny Peralta singled to Paulo Orlando in right field. Grichuk then struck out, followed by a walk to Molina.

Heyward would step to the plate with arguably the best opportunity of the night for the Cardinals to score, but unfortunately, he ended up grounding out, ending the top of the eighth as the Royals were able to get out of the jam. Villaneuva pitched the bottom of the eighth inning as well, and once again, pitched a shutout half inning, and only allowed a single to Salvador Perez.

And in the top of the ninth, with Jason Frasor on the mound for Kansas City, despite Wong and Carpenter getting on base, the Cardinals could not score, and were shutout in a 5-0 defeat, losing their second game in a row.

The loss puts the Cardinals at 27-15, and they no longer own the best record in baseball. And the team that does?

Kansas City.

Their record is now 27-14.

Tomorrow, John Lackey will take the mound as the Cardinals look to avoid losing three in a row for the first time this season.