Kansas City Royals vs St. Louis Cardinals Match Player Stats On Aug 09, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Aug 10, 2017

ST. LOUIS -- One pitch after a cat ran on the field and delayed the game, Yadier Molina got his claws into the Kansas City Royals.

Molina cracked a grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning, lifting the St. Louis Cardinals to an 8-5 victory on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.

Kansas City led 5-4 before Molina lined a 1-0 sinker from Peter Moylan into the seats in left field for his 14th homer of the year and his fifth career slam. Before touching first, Molina jumped in the air and pumped his right fist to celebrate.

Reliever Matt Bowman (3-4) worked a scoreless sixth to get the win for St. Louis (58-56), which won its fifth straight game and pulled within 1 1/2 games of the Chicago Cubs for first place in the National League Central.

Trevor Rosenthal pitched the ninth to garner his ninth save.

Brandon Maurer (0-1) was tagged with the loss after allowing the only two men he faced in the sixth to reach base. Opening the inning, pinch hitter Greg Garcia singled and Matt Carpenter walked.

Moylan entered and induced a flyout from Jose Martinez, with Garcia moving to third and Carpenter advancing to second on a throwing error by right fielder Jorge Bonifacio. After Paul DeJong fanned for the second out, Dexter Fowler was intentionally walked, setting the stage for Molina.

It was the fifth loss in six games for Kansas City (57-56), which fell out of the American League's second wild-card spot with Seattle's win in Oakland. The Mariners are a game in front of the Royals.

Both starters weren't involved in the decision after rocky outings. Royals right-hander Trevor Cahill lasted 2 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and three runs while walking five and fanning one.

Cardinals righty Mike Leake was pounded for 11 hits and five runs (four earned) over five innings. He issued a walk and whiffed five.

Kansas City got to Leake right off the bat. The first four Royals batters collected hits. Lorenzo Cain's double to right-center field scored Whit Merrifield. Melky Cabrera drilled an RBI single to left center that plated Cain.

Merrifield made it 3-0 in the second, scoring on third on an error by catcher Molina, whose his throw to second bounced into center field on Cain's steal.

St. Louis got two of those runs back in its half of the second on a successful safety squeeze by Leake and a run-scoring single by Carpenter.

Jedd Gyorko's RBI single in the third tied the score at 3.

Martinez gave the Cardinals their first lead in the fourth, rifling a solo homer to center, his ninth home run of the year.

But Leake couldn't hold the lead. Cabrera cracked a two-run homer in the fifth off a hanging curve, his 15th home run of the year, to restore a 5-4 lead for the Royals.

NOTES: St. Louis LF Tommy Pham didn't start for only the second time since the All-Star break. Pham batted in the eighth and doubled, his first extra-base hit since July 24. ... Kansas City SS Alcides Escobar started his 284th straight game, tying Baltimore's Miguel Tejada (2004-05) for the longest streak in the majors at the position since the Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr. started 2,216 consecutive games at short from 1982-96. ... Cardinals CF Dexter Fowler batted in the cleanup spot Wednesday night for the first time this year and only the 27th time in his 1,148 major league games.