A grand night for the Royals offense as they win 12-2 in Houston
Two grand slams by the same team in the same game isn’t something you see very often. It’s also not very often that a team can say that an offensive outburst like that isn’t even their biggest scoring day of the past week.
The Royals, having scored 15 runs and collected 19 hits earlier in their road trip, smashed their way to a 12-2 win over the Houston Astros on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park. The Royals hit three home runs, including the first grand slams by Ryan O’Hearn and Whit Merrifield in their respective major-league careers, and collected 13 hits against the Astros pitching staff.
The win gave manager Ned Yost, already the franchise’s leader in managerial wins, 700 victories during his tenure with the Royals.
“It’s always fun to watch kids add to their story, if you will,” Yost said. “O’Hearn has worked so hard and has struggled, but a big grand slam in his home state is kinda cool. Whit’s story, what he’s been able to accomplish since he’s been here has just been amazing.”
O’Hearn and Merrifield became the first pair of Royals to hit grand slams in the same game since Abraham Nunez and John Buck did so against the Athletics in Oakland on Aug. 13, 2004.
Jorge Soler also blasted a solo homer as the Royals evened their three-game series heading into Wednesday’s rubber match.
“We know we have a good offense,” Merrifield said. “We think it’s an underrated offense. People don’t, I think, give us enough credit offensively. But we’ve had some guys get off to good starts, we’ve had some guys get off to slow starts that are good hitters — like O’Hearn — so when those guys can get hot and get going, it’s really going to lengthen our offense. Pitchers aren’t going to like seeing when we come into town.”
Soler started the scoring with a solo home run off the top of the batter’s eye behind the center field wall in the second inning. Soler’s blast tied him with Hunter Dozier for the team lead in homers at nine.
Royals starting pitcher Danny Duffy (1-1) had to wriggle out of a bases-loaded jam in the second after he gave up a leadoff double to Michael Brantley and two-out walks to Aledmys Diaz and Robinson Chirinos. Duffy got Jake Marisnick to ground out.
The Royals tacked on five runs in the third after Merrifield started the frame with the club’s 20th triple of the season. Merrifield scored on Adalberto Mondesi’s RBI double down the left-field line. Then after a walk by Alex Gordon, a fielder’s choice that allowed Dozier to reach and Soler loaded the bases, O’Hearn lined the first pitch from Astros starter Collin McHugh into the right-field stands for the team’s first grand slam of the season.
“It’s pretty cool to do it here,” said O’Hearn, who moved to Texas as a teen and also attended Sam Houston State, a little more than an hour north of Minute Maid Park. “This isn’t really home, but kinda feels like home because I went to college here and there were a lot of people in the stands that I care about and came here to watch me. To do it in front of them was pretty cool.”
O’Hearn’s fourth home run of the season put the Royals ahead 6-0.
“That at-bat before he threw me a first-pitch cutter and a took it,” O’Hearn said. “It was probably in pretty close to the same spot. I was watching how he was pitching Gordo a little bit. I just went in thinking bases loaded here, I want to be aggressive and just get something to the outfield.”
They added another two in the fourth on a Merrifield RBI single and a Dozier RBI triple. McHugh allowed eight runs on seven hits (two home runs) and three walks in three innings.
The Astros didn’t get into the scoring column until Alex Bregman squared up a Duffy 2-1 pitch that stayed over the middle of the plate for a solo homer to left-center field.
The Royals’ second grand slam came in the seventh inning. With O’Hearn (fielder’s choice), Chris Owings (hit by pitch) and Martin Maldonado (single) on base, Merrifield jumped on a 1-0 pitch and sent it sailing high and far to left-center field.
Duffy finished the day having allowed two runs (the second scored after he left the game with two outs in the seventh) on six hits and three walks in 6 2/3 innings. He also struck out five to pick up his first win of the season.
Royals reliever Glenn Sparkman pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, the first time he’s pitched in his home state as a major leaguer.
The Astros put infielder Tyler White on the mound for the ninth inning instead of using up anymore of their bullpen.
This story was originally published May 7, 2019 at 10:07 PM with the headline "A grand night for the Royals offense as they win 12-2 in Houston."
