Sept. 14 — Bobby Witt Jr. had a home run and three RBI. Michael Wacha drove in two runs, went 2-3 and pitched five perfect innings as the Kansas City Royals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-1 on Saturday.
Wacha (13-7) allowed one run on four hits, struck out eight and walked three.
The Royals (82-67) won their seventh game in the nine-match series and three-game sweep before Sunday’s final.
Mitch Keller (11-10) allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits in six innings. Pittsburgh’s starters had six strikeouts and a walk. Bryan Reynolds and Jared Triolo had two hits each for the Pirates (70-78), who lost their second consecutive game.
Kansas City opened the scoring with two batters remaining when Witt soloed his 31st home run of the season off Keller.
Neither team scored until the fifth inning, when Maikel Garcia drove in two runs on an RBI single after Adam Frazier had driven in three runs. He and Garcia combined to steal two and steal one after Kyle Isbell was hit by a pitch.
Witt’s fly ball hit Garcia, increasing the Royals’ lead to 3–0.
Triolo started the fifth inning with a single and moved to second with two batters on Isaiah Kiner-Falefa’s single. After Reynolds struck out, O’Neal Cruz’s single scored the only run for Pittsburgh.
The Royals got a run back in the sixth inning, and after Michael Messi’s double in the first, Triolo committed a defensive error on Freddy Fermin’s grounder, allowing Messi to score the third four-out run for Kansas City.
After Carmen Molozinski relieved Keller in the seventh inning, Isbell greeted the reliever with a leadoff double and then scored on Cruz’s fielding error.
The Buccaneers threatened in the eighth but came up empty-handed. James McArthur pitched for Kansas City and Nick Gonzales singled. Two batters later, Yasmani Grandal walked and Triolo singled.
Kris Bubic replaced MacArthur and struck out Joey Bart and Keener Falefa to get out of the jam.
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