Royals 11, Rays 1
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City Royals defeated the Tampa Bay Rays and onetime Royals phenom Wil Myers, plus the weather, Monday at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals scored five runs in the first three innings and cruised to an 11-1 victory.
The game was a make-up game from May 2 that was canceled because of snow. The temperature at game time was 93 degrees, 52 degrees higher than the temperature on May 2 -- 72 degrees warmer counting the wind chill.
Myers, who appeared in a game for the first time in Kansas City, went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
The Royals built a big lead early and unlike this past weekend's series when they squandered big leads against the Nationals, they held on. Against the Nationals, the Royals blew leads of 6-0 and 4-0. They managed to regain the lead Sunday after coughing up the four-run lead.
Jeremy Guthrie (13-10) recorded the win on Monday. He went just five innings, giving up one run on six hits, but he threw 108 pitches in the heat. Jeremy Hellickson (10-8) took the loss for Tampa Bay. He lasted 2 2/3 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits.
The Royals led 5-1 going into the bottom of the sixth, then put the game away with five more runs. The key blow was Salvador Perez' three-run home run. Billy Butler's home run in the eighth provided the final run.
Hellickson's recent struggles continued. He had his shortest outing of the season, but not by much. His previous shortest stint was three starts ago, when he lasted just three innings at the Dodgers.
Over his last six starts, Hellickson has pitched 25 innings and allowed 25 runs on 42 hits. He has failed to pitch past 4 2/3 innings in all but one of those starts. He's 0-5 in those six starts.
The Royals soft-served their way to a run in the first. Alex Gordon and Emilio Bonifacio looped singles to left to start the inning. After a fly out, Butler drove home Gordon with a hard single to left.
The Rays threatened in the third. With two outs, David DeJesus and Ben Zobrist singled. But Guthrie struck out Evan Longoria on a full count.
Butler came through again in the third. This time, Bonifacio beat out an infield hit and Eric Hosmer walked before Butler lofted a soft single just beyond the defense on the right side, scoring Bonifacio.
Mike Moustakas followed with an RBI double. Perez drove home Butler with a sacrifice fly and Justin Maxwell drove home Moustakas with an RBI single. After retiring Alcides Escobar, Hellickson's day was done.
The Rays got one run off of Guthrie in the fourth, and they could have had more. Matt Joyce led off with a double. With one out, James Loney singled him home. Jose Lobaton doubled Loney to third. With two outs, Yunel Escobar walked to load the bases, but DeJesus was caught looking for the third out.
NOTES: Rays manager Joe Maddon was ejected in the fourth inning for arguing balls and strikes. ... Former Ray Bonifacio went 3-for-5. ... Former Royal DeJesus was 1-for-4 for the Rays. ... The top five spots in the Royals lineup were 10-for-22 with three walks and nine runs scored. ... The announced attendance of 20,543 reflected the ticket sales from the ticket sales for the originally scheduled game in May.
