Omar Infante keys Five Run inning in Royals Win

Bruce Chen stepped into the rotation to pitch a solid 5 1/3 innings to help the Royals notch a 5-2 win against the Detroit Tigers Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

Detroit starter Justin Verlander held the Royals scoreless through 6 innings until Kansas City hitters broke through with a 5-run 7th. The uprising made a winner of Yordano Ventura, who relieved Chen in the 7th.

The big blow came from Omar Infante, who stroked a 2-run single with the bases loaded and 2 outs to break a 2-2 tie.

The win puts Kansas City at 2 games over .500 at 47-45. The Royals are now 6.5 games behind Detroit in the American League Central.

On the Mound

Bruce Chen started in place of Justin Vargas, who is recovering from his appendectomy last week. In his first start since April, Chen tossed 5.1 innings, allowing 8 hits, 0 walks, and 2 earned runs with 2 strikeouts.

Yordano Ventura relieved Chen in the 6th, and stranded a runner at first to finish out the inning. Ventura also pitched a scoreless 7th. Overall, Ventura went 1.2 innings, allowing 1 hit, 0 walks and 3 strikeouts.

Wade Davis pitched a clean 8th inning with 1 strikeout.

Greg Holland finished up with another scoreless inning in the 9th to earn his 25th save.

At the Plate

The Royals pushed across all 5 of their runs in the 7th inning. The Royals started off the 7th with 4 consecutive singles, including a see-eye hopper by Alcides Escobar with the bases loaded that scored the Royals first run. Dyson followed with a ground out to 2nd that drove in a run.

After Ian Krol relieved Verlander and walked Salvador Perez to load the bases, and Nori Aoki popped out, Al Alburquerque gave up a 2-run single to Omar Infante. The Royals final run came on Eric Hosmer‘s ground-rule double that brought home Perez.

Omar Infante went 1-4 with 2 RBI’s.

Alcides Escobar went 2-4, with 2 singles, 1 run scored, and 1 RBI.

Jarrod Dyson also went 2-4, with 2 singles and 1 RBI.

Overall, the Royals punched out 10 hits with only 2 doubles, but scored 5 runs because they bunched 6 hits and an intentional walk in the 7th inning.

This and That

Eric Hosmer’s ground-rule double to deep center in the 7th inning extended his season-long hitting streak to 13 games. Hosmer is finally heating up. He’s hitting .426/.500/.660 in July, with 2 home runs, 5 doubles, and 7 RBI’s.

J.D. Martinez had a nice defensive game for the Tigers. He robbed Raul Ibanez of a double in the 5th innings, then made a nice running catch to retire Nori Aoki in the 6th.

Raul Ibanez’s single in the 7th broke an 0-25 slump.

KC Kingdom Player of the Game

I’m going with 2B Omar Infante, who came up with the critical hit that prevented the Tigers from earning a 4-game sweep in Kauffman Stadium.

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• Billy Butler – 2
• Danny Valencia
• Christian Colon
• Raul Ibanez
• Jarrod Dyson – 2
• Lorenzo Cain – 6
• Johnny Giavotella
• Wade Davis
• Norichika Aoki
• Salvador Perez – 6
• Jeremy Guthrie  – 5
• Jason Vargas – 6
• Alex Gordon – 9
• Bruce Chen
• James Shields – 8
• Yordano Ventura – 4
• Mike Moustakas
• Danny Duffy – 6
• Omar Infante – 4
• Mike Moustakas – 5
• Alcides Escobar – 5
• Eric Hosmer – 11
• Michael Mariot

The Tigers

J.D. Martinez continues to wear out the Royals. Instead of hitting home runs, at least KC held him to 3 singles in 4 at bats. Martinez picked up an RBI, but also made two excellent plays in the field. Why couldn’t the Royals have picked up this guy instead of the disappointing Nori Aoki to fill their right field hole? Martinez is hitting a scorching hot .346/380/.654 in 208 at bats since signing with Detroit as a free-agent after spending 2013 in Houston.

Up Next

The Royals are off for the next 3 days due to the All-Star break. After the break, the Royals will travel to Boston to take on the Red Sox. James Shields (9-5, 3.65 ERA) is scheduled to start for Kansas City against Clay Buchholz (4-5, 5.42 ERA) for the Red Sox. Game time is 6:10 CST on Friday, July 18 at Fenway Park in Boston.

Box

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table.

SF: M Cabrera (8, off B Chen).
TB: R Davis 3; J Martinez 3; A Jackson 2; A Avila.
GIDP: A Jackson (7); M Cabrera (13).
RBI: J Martinez (43); M Cabrera (75).
2-out RBI: J Martinez.
Team LOB: 5.
With RISP: 0 for 3.

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table.

2B: B Hayes (1, off J Verlander); E Hosmer (26, off P Coke).
IBB: S Perez (2, by I Krol); B Butler (3, by P Coke).
TB: E Hosmer 2; J Dyson 2; B Hayes 2; A Escobar 2; O Infante; R Ibanez; B Butler; M Moustakas.
RBI: O Infante 2 (46); E Hosmer (42); J Dyson (13); A Escobar (29).
2-out RBI: O Infante 2; E Hosmer.
Team LOB: 8.
With RISP: 4 for 10.
Fielding
DP: 2. A Escobar-O Infante-E Hosmer 2.
Baserunning
SB: J Dyson (18, 2nd base off P Coke/A Avila).

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table.

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table.

Balks: None.
WP: Y Ventura (7).
HBP: None.
IBB: P Coke (1; B Butler); I Krol (3; S Perez).
Pickoffs: None.