Omar Infante Powers Kansas City Royals to Victory

Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

Second baseman Omar Infante pulled the Royals out of their offensive doldrums, resulting in a 9-3 win over the Orioles in Baltimore on Sunday afternoon.

Infante drove in 6 runs from his no. 2 position in the lineup, allowing the Royals to pull out a 2-1 series victory against the Orioles. Kansas City finished their road trip 3-4, and head home to face the Blue Jays on Tuesday.

On the Mound

James Shields continued his early-season dominance with 7 strong innings with 6 strikeouts, while only giving up 2 earned runs.

Shields only gave up 3 hits, including one credited to former Royal David Lough for a pop-up that fell near to the mound. Shields and 3B Mike Moustakas failed to communicate, which allowed the ball to fall without being touched by either. When you give up 2 runs in 7 innings and your ERA goes up, you know you’re hot.

That’s how good James Shields have been this season.

Shields, however, continued the slap-dash defense from Royals pitcher this season. Along with the miscue above, which was not a charged error because no one touched the ball, Shields made an error by throwing away the ball to second on a fielders choice in the 4th inning. Shields escaped the inning without damage.

Kelvin Herrera pitched a clean 8th with two strikeouts, bringing down his season ERA to 3.00.

Greg Holland pitched the 9th to get some work after a mostly idle week. Holland gave up two hits and allowed one run despite 2 strikeouts.

At the Plate

The offense was the Omar Infante show. Infante went 2-3, with a double, a home run, and 6 RBI’s.

Infante started off his day with an RBI ground out, hit a sacrifice fly, added a 2 run double in the 5th, and broke open the game with a 2-run home run in the 7th. Infante drove in Kansas City’s first 6 runs.

Alex Gordon followed up Infante’s home run with a 2-run double in Kansas City’s two-out 4-run rally in the 7th.

Mike Moustakas drove in the Royals final run with a double in the 9th.

Salvador Perez stroked two singles and drew a walk, continuing his breakout from his long slump.

This and That

The Royals have committed 22 errors, tied for 2nd most in the American League. Eight of those errors have come from the pitching staff.

The 9 runs the Royals scored on Sunday were a season-high for the offense.

Manager Ned Yost‘s failure to use Holland on Saturday looks even worse today. Bringing in Holland to protect a 7-run 9th inning lead was a far less important situation than bringing him into a tied extra-innings game with the bases loaded on Saturday.

KC Kingdom Player of the Game

Omar Infante is the clear choice, despite 7 dominating innings from James Shields. Infante’s 6 RBI’s were the most since he drove in 6 against Shields while playing for Detroit last season.

Not only did Omar Infante drive in 6 runs, he also made a nice diving stop on a ground ball headed up the middle in the 2nd inning.

More from Kansas City Royals

The Orioles

Not only were the Orioles held to 5 hits, they also played poor defense. Not only did centerfielder Adam Jones‘ drop resulted in an unearned run, the Orioles blew two opportunities to eliminate Kansas City base-runners on pitchouts.

Baltimore manager Buck Showalter told ESPN: “We made a couple of good decisions with pitchouts (but) we weren’t able to execute that. Those are two free outs. Then obviously, Adam’s one of the best center fielders in the game. So I’m not going to lament that at all. He’s been a rock for us out there. You spot them, give them those type of things that they don’t earn, with Shields on the mound, that’s not a good combination.”

Up Next

The Royals have an off-day on Monday before facing the Toronto Blue Jays at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday. Ned Yost will send Jason Vargas (2-0, 1.54 ERA) to the mound against Blue Jay starter Dustin McGowan (1-1 6.88 ERA).

Let’s hope Kansas City’s 9 run outburst is the start of new offensive trend.

Batting	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OPS
Nori Aoki RF	5	3	2	0	0	0	.277	.678
Omar Infante 2B	3	1	2	6	1	0	.279	.751
Eric Hosmer 1B	5	1	1	0	0	1	.295	.724
Billy Butler DH	5	1	1	0	0	1	.209	.516
Alex Gordon LF	4	1	2	2	1	2	.277	.721
Salvador Perez C	4	0	2	0	1	0	.239	.673
Mike Moustakas 3B	5	0	1	1	0	0	.159	.567
Alcides Escobar SS	4	1	1	0	1	0	.296	.772
Jarrod Dyson CF	4	1	1	0	0	0	.357	.736
Team Totals	39	9	13	9	4	4	.333	.874

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/28/2014.

2B: O Infante (1, off M Gonzalez); M Moustakas (4, off R Webb); A Gordon (9, off E Meek).

HR: O Infante (2, off E Meek; 7th inn, 1 on, 2 outs to Deep LF-CF).

SF: O Infante (1, off M Gonzalez).

TB: O Infante 6; A Gordon 3; S Perez 2; M Moustakas 2; N Aoki 2; B Butler; E Hosmer; J Dyson; A Escobar.

GIDP: M Moustakas (1).

RBI: O Infante 6 (17); A Gordon 2 (14); M Moustakas (12).

2-out RBI: A Gordon 2; O Infante 2; M Moustakas.

Team LOB: 8.

With RISP: 2 for 11.

Fielding

DP: 1. A Escobar-O Infante-E Hosmer.

E: J Shields (2).

Baserunning

SB: J Dyson (4, 2nd base off M Gonzalez/S Clevenger).

Batting	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OPS
Jemile Weeks DH	4	1	1	0	0	0	.375	1.000
Nelson Cruz RF	4	1	1	2	0	2	.284	.956
Nick Markakis 1B	3	1	1	0	1	0	.300	.720
Adam Jones CF	4	0	0	0	0	1	.265	.659
Steve Clevenger C	3	0	0	0	1	0	.250	.848
J.J. Hardy SS	3	0	0	0	0	1	.242	.548
Delmon Young PH	1	0	1	0	0	0	.324	.861
Steve Lombardozzi 2B	4	0	0	0	0	2	.292	.635
Jonathan Schoop 3B	3	0	0	0	0	2	.241	.673
David Lough LF	3	0	1	0	0	2	.172	.467
Team Totals	32	3	5	2	2	10	.156	.487