September 14 – Alec Marsh pitched 5 1/3 quality innings, helping the Kansas City Royals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8–3 on Friday.
Marsh (8-8) allowed one run on five hits, struck out 11 and walked two. Salvador Perez and Kyle Isbell each had a homer and two hits, and both drove in two runs. Tommy Pham also scored twice to give the Royals (81-67) their sixth win in eight games.
Bryan Reynolds and O’Neil Cruz each had two hits and an RBI for Pittsburgh (70-77), which ended the Pirates’ four-game winning streak. Joey Bart went 1 for 3 and scored a run.
After a scoreless first game, Robbie Grossman took the lead by homering off Pittsburgh starter Luis Ortiz in the second. Adam Frazier then handled Ortiz’s throwing error, followed by Yuli Gurriel’s RBI single for the game’s first run.
Isbell’s run to right doubled to score Frazier. Pham then doubled the Royals’ lead with a two-run single, and Ortiz became Kansas City’s fifth runner on the ball.
After Bobby Witt Jr. struck out, Pérez hit his 27th home run of the year, a two-run shot, increasing Kansas City’s lead to 6–0.
In the top of the fourth quarter, Isbell hit his eighth home run of the season, giving the Royals a 7–0 lead.
Joe Wentz replaced Ortiz after he gave up seven runs (four earned) on five hits in four innings. Ortiz had five strikeouts and two walks.
Pittsburgh’s first offensive challenge came in the bottom of the fifth inning when De La Cruz and Jared Trolo singled to put runners on the corners. But Marsh escaped by striking out Reynolds, giving him his 11th strikeout in five innings.
Cruz started the sixth inning for Pittsburgh with a double and walked two batters before Butt’s RBI single exploded the Pirates’ scoreboard and Marsh was retired after 96 pitches.
Frazier hit a solo home run in the top of the eighth inning, his fourth of the season, while Reynolds’s sacrifice fly and Cruz’s RBI single in the ninth capped the night for Pittsburgh.
——Visual-level media
