NewsRoyals hold off Cardinals in I-70 finale
Kansas City answers game-tying rally with run in seventh
By Dick Kaegel / MLB.com
05/24/09 7:04 PM ET
ST. LOUIS -- Not only did the Royals score a run, they scored a victory on Sunday over the St. Louis Cardinals.Kansas City rebounded from two shutout losses to notch a 3-2 win in the finale of the I-70 Interleague Series to disappoint the red-clad fans in the sellout crowd of 44,213 at Busch Stadium.
By ending a four-game skid, the Royals got back to .500 at 22-22 and closed to within three games of Detroit in the American League Central. They open a three-game series against the Tigers on Monday in KC.
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"The biggest thing it does for us is give us some momentum going into tomorrow against Detroit," Mike Jacobs said. "If we take that series, we're right back where we want to be."
Jacobs' pinch-hit single snapped a 2-2 tie against Cardinals starter Joel Pineiro in the seventh inning. Willie Bloomquist set up the big hit by hustling to a two-out double, barely beating center fielder Colby Rasmus' throw.
"They've got a good catcher behind the plate, so stealing a bag is not the easiest thing to do," Bloomquist said. "So out of the box, I was thinking of stretching something if I had an opportunity."
Sure enough, the ball was just far enough.
"Two outs, late in the game, take a gamble, roll the dice -- why not?" Bloomquist said. "It was a risk, but one that I was willing to take."
And he caught Rasmus, who seemed to field the ball with nonchalance, off-guard.
"I looked up, and he was going," Rasmus said. "I wasn't expecting him to."
Royals starter Brian Bannister was due to bat, so Jacobs was sent up as a pinch-hitter, a task in which he had not exactly excelled in his career at .184 (7-for-38).
"They obviously flash numbers up there [on the scoreboard], and my numbers pinch-hitting aren't very good," Jacobs said. "So to be able to get that knock and put us ahead was a big [at-bat] for us."
Jacobs rifled a line drive to the right-field corner that bounced off the wall for a long single, easily scoring Bloomquist.
That made a winner of Bannister, 4-1 since being recalled, with the bullpen triumvirate of Horacio Ramirez, John Bale and Juan Cruz holding the one-run edge.
The day started fortuitously for the Royals when, in the first inning, they ended a 24-inning string of scoreless innings. Billy Butler slapped a two-out single and scored when left fielder Chris Duncan couldn't catch Jose Guillen's long drive to the left-field corner.
Then, this being a National League venue, the pitchers were able to get into the hitting act, and they did so with gusto.
In the fifth, after Miguel Olivo doubled and moved up on a groundout, Bannister came up and slapped a single into right field for a 2-0 lead.
"My dream was to make it to the big leagues as a hitter," Bannister said. "I spent thousands of hours in my yard hitting balls."
Pineiro retaliated in the sixth. Rick Ankiel, just off the disabled list, doubled and scored on Yadier Molina's single. Molina took second on the throw, so Joe Thurston was intentionally walked to get to the Cardinals pitcher. On a 3-2 pitch, Pineiro punched a flare to short left field that just eluded the glove of Bloomquist at short.
"It's my parents' fault. Genetics -- I'm just not fast enough, I guess -- or tall enough," Bloomquist said. "It was close; I was probably a step away."
Bannister gave a polite nod to Pineiro's batsmanship on a down-and-away cutter.
"It was the same pitch that Albert [Pujols] had grounded out on the inning before, so I knew it wasn't a bad pitch," Bannister said. "Guys had been grounding out on it all day, and he managed to get underneath it and just bloop it out there."
That, though, was end of the Cardinals' scoring. There was an anxious moment in the seventh when, after two outs, Ramirez served up an intentional walk to the menacing Pujols and then unintentionally walked Duncan.
Out of the bullpen came Bale, just recalled from the Minors where he'd been rehabbing from thyroid surgery. Bale struck out Ankiel on three pitches, a called fastball and swinging misses on two sweeping, sidearmed 70-mph sliders.
Bale also pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, marking a perfect comeback from a malady that had melted his weight and sapped his strength. It was a big moment for him.
"Oh, yeah, definitely after coming into Spring Training at 200 pounds and having something taken out of your neck," Bale said. "It was a slow process coming back."
Cruz, stepping into a role usually filled by disabled closer Joakim Sora, got two outs in the ninth before Rasmus bounced a ground-rule double into the left-field seats. At this point, Royals manager Trey Hillman ordered Pujols intentionally walked.
"[It's] not often that I walk the go-ahead run, especially in the ninth inning," Hillman said, "but I still like the percentages there, even though Duncan squared it up."
Duncan slammed a hard line drive that sent right fielder Mitch Maier retreating toward the wall. But catch it, he did.
The victory was just the fourth for the Royals in their last 15 games.
"A win like this can certainly help," Bloomquist said. "Any win's kind of precious right now, but hopefully, we can get on a roll and get back to playing the way we can."
Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
