Kansas City Royals vs Tampa Bay Rays Match Player Stats On May 08, 2017

The Sports Xchange
May 8, 2017

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Royals are the worst road team in baseball, but the Tampa Bay Rays were much worse Monday night, committing a season-high four errors as Kansas City cruised to a 7-3 win at Tropicana Field.

The Royals (11-20) improved to 3-11 on the road while collecting a season-high 13 hits, one day after being held to one hit in a 1-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians.

Kansas City got 10 strikeouts from starter Nate Karns (2-2) against the team he played for in 2014-15, and Tampa Bay (16-18) missed opportunities early at the plate then let the game get away with errors contributing to four runs.

Kansas City, which came in with the majors' lowest team batting average at .208, got multi-hit games from six different players. Even No. 9 hitter Drew Butera, who hadn't driven in a run all season, had a home run and an RBI single.

Tampa Bay hitters went 0-for-7 with six strikeouts with a runner at third -- three strikeouts after a leadoff triple in the second, two more after loading the bases with no outs in the third. The Rays, who led 1-0 early, have blown leads in 10 of their past 11 losses.

Snell threw 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball. He gave up six hits and two walks.

Rays starter Blake Snell (0-3) continued his early-season struggles, lasting only five innings and giving up four runs and 10 hits, his sixth straight start of five innings or less.

The Rays' first batter of the game scored when Corey Dickerson doubled and came around on an RBI single by Brad Miller off the glove of Karns.

Kansas City got three runs in the third, opening the inning with five straight hits.

Butera, batting .150 coming in, hit his first home run of the season, and Alcides Escobar followed with a double. Lorenzo Cain hit a routine single up the middle, but Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier -- a two-time Gold Glove winner -- let the ball go under his glove and Cain made it all the way for a 3-1 lead on the three-base error.

Snell got out of the inning with the help of a double play after allowing two more singles.

The Royals extended their lead to 4-1 in the fifth. Eric Hosmer reached on a hustle double and scored on an RBI single by Salvador Perez.

Kansas City got another run to make it 5-1 in the sixth. Alex Gordon was hit by a pitch from Austin Pruitt with two outs, stole second and took third on a throwing error by catcher Derek Norris. Gordon then scored on an RBI single by Butera, who entered the game with no RBIs in 20 at-bats this season.

Kansas City padded its lead with a run in the sixth and two in the seventh, helped by a combined three errors. Two runs scored with help from throwing errors trying to throw out runners stealing second, and another when Miller committed his fifth error of the season with a wide throw with two outs.

Tampa Bay got a run on a bases-loaded wild pitch in the seventh, then another on a solo home run by Colby Rasmus -- his second in three days -- in the eighth.

NOTES: The Rays trade that sent RHP Nate Karns to the Mariners in November 2015 netted two of their starting infielders in 2B Brad Miller (who hit 30 HRs last year) and 1B Logan Morrison (who leads this year's team with 7 HRs). ... Royals 1B Eric Hosmer, whose 10-game hit streak ended Sunday, was back at it Monday, collecting three hits. ... Kansas City hadn't left the Central time zone once in its first 30 games before Monday. After this four-game series, the Royals are back in the Central for nine more.