Kansas City Royals take Game 1 from Tampa Bay Rays

Imagine this. Another game, and another solid pitching performance from a Kansas City Royals starter. In Jason Vargas’ home debut the fans were treated to a gem!  In 8 innings Vargas only gave up four hits and one run.  All told, I think he threw 13 fly balls to what is quickly shaping up to be one of the best defensive outfields in the game.

The offensive play of the game had to be off the bat of Alcides Escobar with the bases loaded and two outs. In the bottom of the 6th, Escobar launched a ball off the wall in the left field corner to score Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez and Lorenzo Cain. Thanks to a late home run by Ben Zobrist of Tampa Bay and an RBI single by Matt Joyce in the 9th, Escobar’s hit proved to be the game winner.

Also of note was the leadoff triple by Nori Aoki in the first inning. He would later score on Eric Hosmer’s single through a drawn in infield.

Injuries found their way into the game today as Tampa lost starting pitcher Matt Moore in the 5th to tightness in his forearm. And a very scary moment happened in the 8th when tons of fun former closer Health Bell forgot to wipe the grease off his fingers from the gravy shake he was enjoying in the bullpen, and heaved a fastball off Omar Infante’s chin. In slow-mo, you could actually see a cut form on his chin as the ball struck it. To Infante’s credit he took that shot like a pro boxer. He got up, but realized he was hurt bad, and the trainers helped him walk off (bleeding through a towel). He was taken for X-rays but the results have yet to be made public. Check @royalsblue_com on twitter for further updates.

Danny Valencia came in for Infante at second and showed he is still pretty raw at the position. With no outs, a ground ball was hit to the sky, Valencia was there to roll the double play but held on to it a bit too long, and ended up throwing the ball off the dugout railing. The next play was a slow roller, this time Valencia made the play and recorded the second out of the game. However, the runner he failed to turn the double play on, eventually scored on Matt Joyce’s’ two-out single, proving the point the ball always finds you!

The Royals scored four runs again today in the win, thus adding evidence that their magic offensive number is 4!  And Greg Holland came in to give up two hits and a run on his way to his 3rd save this year.

The Kansas City Royals have pulled back to .500 at 3-3, and will take on the Rays again tomorrow.