Andrew Benintendi sparks the Royals to a 6-2 victory in series opener with the Tigers
It sure seemed like Kansas City Royals left fielder Andrew Benintendi all of a sudden threw off some invisible restraints that had been holding him back slightly and hit the ground with reckless abandon. Oh, and on one highlight-reel play, he actually hit the ground in the process of making a diving catch.
It wasn’t just his first home run as a Royal, Benintendi also made a diving catch in the left-center field gap the next inning. He started the four-run fifth inning with a single, and he came tearing around third base on a hit- and-run like a man on fire heading for water.
Given a day off and then dropped to the No. 7 spot in the lineup earlier in the week, Benintendi provided a shot of energy both offensively and defensively in the Royals’ 6-2 win in front of an announced 8,000 spectators for the series opener against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Friday night.
“I’ll take anything at this point,” Benintendi joked when asked which part of the night stood out the most for him. “But making a play for Mike (Minor) is always fun.”
Benintendi went 2 for 3 with a homer, a walk and two runs scored. The night also marked the first time this season that the Ohio native had both of his parents as well as one of his sisters in attendance at the ballpark. His father also made the trip to Kansas City earlier this season.
“You could just tell that he’s seeing the ball really well,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “It was moving that direction at home. There were a couple balls that he just didn’t get rewarded on, but he was starting to square them up. You could see his timing — we talked about this with (Jorge) Soler not too long ago — you could see it’s getting really close.”
Ryan O’Hearn homered in his first game of the season with the Royals after having been recalled earlier in the day when outfielder Kyle Isbel was optioned to the alternate site.
Whit Merrifield had two hits and a run scored, and Carlos Santana walked three times as the Royals improved to 11-7 for their best start through 18 games since they went 12-6 in 2015 and 2016.
Before the end of the fifth inning, the Royals chased the Tigers’ young ace and former first overall draft pick Casey Mize (selected in the same draft as Royals right-hander Brady Singer).
Benintendi’s homer in the second broke the ice. He swatted a 96 mph 1-2 fastball to the opposite field. Tigers left fielder Akil Baddoo drifted back as if poised to make a catch at the wall, but the ball kept carrying.
“The inning before there was a breeze,” said Benintendi, who patrolled left field himself. “It’s funny because literally right before that I said if I can get something up in the air out here it’s got a shot. Sure enough, that first at-bat happened. I hit it pretty well, but I didn’t by no means kill it. Fortunately, it went out.”
The next inning on a ball lined into the left-center field gap by Wilson Ramos, Benintendi left his feet and made a grab while nearly parallel to the ground, robbing Ramos of an extra-base hit.
Benintendi started a four-run fifth inning with a single up the middle. Michael A. Taylor followed with a single. Nicky Lopez, who had to dust himself off after being sent sprawling into the dirt by an inside pitch, drove in the first run of the inning on a ground out.
Merrifield singled with Taylor running on the pitch, and Taylor scored from first on the play — the second hit-and-run of the inning. Following a Carlos Santana walk and a pop-up by Salvador Perez, Soler ripped a two-run double down the left-field line and into the corner.
Mize allowed six runs on seven hits and three walks (two to Santana).
Minor, the Royals starting pitcher, struck out nine and allowed two runs on four hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Matheny lauded Minor’s ability to “use just about any pitch in any count” and to control counts throughout his outing.
Minor retired the first nine batters he faced.
“We threw a lot of off-speed at them to see where they were at,” said Minor. “The curveball worked well tonight. The slider worked early. Later on, I couldn’t control the slider, so we threw a lot more curveballs and changeups.”
Minor (2-1) said he did notice hitters adjusting to that strategy. Veteran outfielder Robbie Grossman jumped on a first-pitch breaking ball in his second at-bat for a two-run home run in the fifth inning, the only runs against Minor.
“I felt like they were sitting on pitches and making the adjustments,” Minor said. “So it was kind of that cat-and-mouse game. We face these guys some more, and we’ll see what happens.”
Relief pitcher Tyler Zuber got hit in his throwing arm by a line drive back up the middle. The Royals recorded the final out of the inning after the ball deflected off Zuber to Santana at first base. Zuber came out of the game after that play. Matheny said Zuber got X-rays and they came back negative.
This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 9:34 PM with the headline "Andrew Benintendi sparks the Royals to a 6-2 victory in series opener with the Tigers."
