Franco’s 2 home runs pace 6-homer night as Royals roar to series-opening win at Detroit
The Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers combined to score nine runs in the first three innings, and neither starting pitcher made it past the third as the baseballs were flying far and frequently at the onset of this and that was just prologue to the real fireworks.
The Royals trailed by four runs after three innings and went on to score the game’s next 11 on their way to a 14-6 win in the opening game of their four-game set against the Tigers at Comerica Park on Monday night. The game featured 20 runs, 22 hits and eight home runs.
Royals hitters blasted six of those home runs and tied a franchise record set at Detroit on July 14, 1991, and matched at Seattle on May 21, 2003. Two homers came courtesy of Maikel Franco and one each by Whit Merrifield, Salvador Perez, Jorge Soler and Brett Phillips. Remarkably, only one of those homers, Franco’s second of the night, came in a game-altering six-run fourth inning.
Franco went 3-for-5 with four RBIs and recorded his fifth career multi-homer game, while Merrifield went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and scored three times and came a triple shy of hitting for the cycle. After missing the Royals’ season-opening series at Cleveland due to COVID-19, Ryan O’Hearn had two hits, including a double, and two RBIs.
“I’m very excited to come in to have a nice game and help my team to win, that’s the most important (thing),” Franco said.
Franco’s three-run blast to left-center field capped the scoring in that inning. Franco, acquired as a free agent this offseason, drove in the winning run in the 10th inning on Saturday night with a sacrifice fly.
He’d gone 2-for-11 at the plate in the opening series of the season against the Cleveland Indians, but he collected two hits on Sunday after getting his first RBI on Saturday.
“The last two at-bats Saturday against Cleveland made me feel comfortable,” Franco said. “I knew I saw the ball really good in those at-bats. I just tried to in myself, stay in plan and try to be ready every single day.”
Franco, who enjoyed several productive offensive seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies in recent years, drove in the Royals’ first run of the night with a solo homer in the top of the second inning.
Royals starting pitcher Mike Montgomery gave up five runs (three earned) on five hits, including one three-run homer by JaCoby Jones, in two innings. Montgomery left the game with the Royals trailing 5-1.
Left-hander Foster Griffin made his MLB debut on his 25th birthday. He pitched in relief of Montgomery. Griffin pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings before he left the game with a forearm strain. He earned his first major-league win.
Merrifield started the rally in the third inning with a two-run homer to cut the deficit in half. Three batters later, Perez blasted a solo homer to the deepest part of the ballpark and made it a one-run game.
“It was good to see because we fell behind early,” Merrifield said of the six-run inning. “For us to put that together in a game — not where we jumped out and scored six in the first inning and kind of put it on cruise control — we needed to answer back and we did. It was good to see what we think is a pretty potent offense come alive.”
The six-run fourth inning started with a double by Franchy Cordero, a walk by Phillips and then an RBI double by Merrifield that tied the score.
Maybe the most crucial hit of that outburst came from a hitter who made his season debut in the game — O’Hearn.
Fresh off the injured list after being sidelined by COVID-19, O’Hearn laced a two-out, two-run single into right-center with the bases loaded to give the Royals their first lead of the game, 7-5, in his second at-bat of the season after Soler grounded out, Adalberto Mondesi struck out and Perez drew a two-out walk.
“Huge hit, and just that shot in the arm of having O’Hearn back with us,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “ … O’Hearn comes up in a big situation and puts together a great at-bat and finds a hole. That’s just nice to see. Then he drives the ball in the gap (in his next at-bat), just a nice welcome back to Ryan.”
Franco’s second round-tripper added three more runs and the Royals never looked back.
The bullpen contingent of Kevin McCarthy, Josh Staumont, Glenn Sparkman and Gabe Speier carried the Royals across the finish line after Griffin’s injury in the fourth inning.
The teams will continue their series Tuesday night in Detroit. The Royals have not yet named a starting pitcher.
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 9:37 PM with the headline "Franco’s 2 home runs pace 6-homer night as Royals roar to series-opening win at Detroit."
