Phillies 4, Royals 3
PHILADELPHIA -- Pinch hitter Kevin Frandsen doubled home three runs in the bottom of the ninth Saturday night as the Philadelphia Phillies rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
Kansas City (2-3) led 3-1 entering the bottom of the ninth, but reliever Greg Holland (0-1) walked Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Michael Young to open the inning.
Domonic Brown struck out on three pitches and John Mayberry Jr. stuck out looking on a 1-2 pitch, but Frandsen, batting for Humberto Quintero, lined the first pitch from Holland into the right-centerfield gap to knock home Utley, pinch runner Ezequiel Carrera and Young.
Frandsen's hit made a winner of reliever Antonio Bastardo (1-0), who pitched a scoreless inning.
Miguel Tejada drove in his first two runs of the season and Luis Mendoza had pitched six strong innings for Kansas City. Aaron Crow and Kelvin Herrera each pitched a perfect inning in relief of Mendoza.
The 38-year-old Tejada, the 2002 American League MVP while with Oakland, also made his first start of the season, at third base, after being used twice as a pinch hitter in the Royals' first four games. He drove in a run with a fifth-inning groundout and a seventh-inning double.
Jeff Francoeur scored both those runs, having doubled earlier in each inning. The fifth-inning hit was the first Phillies' starter John Lannan had allowed in the game. He finished his first start with Philadelphia (2-3) allowing five hits and three runs over seven innings.
Lannan retired the first nine Royals in order before Alex Gordon reached on an error by Phillies' second baseman Utley leading off the fourth. Lannan escaped that inning unscathed, but hit Lorenzo Cain with a pitch leading off the fifth.
Francoeur then grounded a double inside the third-base bag, putting runners at second and third. Tejada drove in the night's first run with a grounder to second, and Elliot Johnson followed by grounding a single through the middle of a drawn-in infield, bringing Francoeur home.
The Phils cut the lead in half in the bottom of the fifth when Ben Revere lined a single off the glove of Tejada at third base with two outs, scoring John Mayberry Jr., who led off the inning with a walk and moved to second on Lannan's sacrifice bunt.
NOTES: The Royals' 19 hits in Friday's 13-4 victory over the Phillies were their most since July 3, 2011, when they had 21 in a 16-8 victory at Colorado. ... Friday's game also saw Kansas City become just the third team in MLB history to be held scoreless through a game's first four innings, then score two runs or more in each of the last five. ... Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick made it clear after Friday's game that he had hoped to remain on the mound, rather than being removed with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth. "He can say what he wants to," manager Charlie Manuel said Saturday. "I'll say to him what I want to. I won't say to you what I tell him, though." ... Manuel managed his 1,300th game with the Phillies on Friday. Manuel, in his ninth season with the team and his 51st in professional baseball, is the franchise's all-time winningest manager, with 729 victories through Friday. ... The Phillies' Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins started their 961st game as a double-play combination Saturday. It is the second-most for an active combination, behind the Yankees' Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano (1,036).
