Kansas City Royals tandem of Nicky Lopez and Whit Merrifield sparks offensive outburst
Infielder Nicky Lopez and All-Star infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield powered the Kansas City Royals to a nine-run, 15-hit outburst in their first game back from the All-Star break.
The four-game losing streak that sent the Royals into the break was forgotten as they beat up on the Baltimore Orioles to the tune of a 9-2 win Friday in front of an announced 23,763 in the first game of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium.
The 15 hits matched a season high for the Royals (37-53), and they went 6 for 12 with runners in scoring position. Six players in the starting lineup had at least two hits, while three players had multiple-RBI games.
Merrifield, coming off his second All-Star Game, went 4 for 4 with three RBIs and two runs scored from the leadoff spot in the lineup. Merrifield’s performance gave him his ninth career game with at least four hits,
Lopez went 2 for 4 with a career-high four RBIs and two runs scored out of the No. 9 hole.
“That nine spot in a perfect world is another leadoff guy, and Nicky has really been doing a great job with getting on base, putting together tough at-bats,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “But his situational hitting, I think, has stood out as much as anything. He’s moving guys over. He’s putting together great at-bats with two strikes. …
“Then you’ve got a guy on base for damage to happen when we get to the top of the order. And Whit just being Whit. What a great day there. I mean, everything that you could ask for.”
Salvador Perez, fresh off his seventh All-Star appearance, also had two hits and two RBIs.
Andrew Benintendi, Hunter Dozier and Hanser Alberto also each had two hits. Alberto smoked a pair of doubles to left field against his former team. Alberto played for the Orioles from 2019-20.
“It’s no secret we were scuffling going into the break,” Merrifield said. “So to have a couple days off to get away and then come back and seem to have things clicking on all cylinders right out the gate is, obviously, sort of what you want. But we’ve done this before. We’ve had games like this before. We need to find ways to play games like this more often.”
In his first start since July 8 in Cleveland, Royals veteran left-hander Danny Duffy allowed one run on two hits in four innings. He struck out two and walked one. The lone run he allowed came in the fourth inning after he gave up an infield single and a walk to the first two batters of the inning.
Duffy threw just 54 pitches. He left the game after four innings after his left leg started to “tighten up” because of a comebacker that hit him on the knee in the first inning. The ball hit back at Duffy came off the bat at 97.5 mph. The Royals recorded an inning-ending out on the play as the ball deflected off Duffy to Lopez.
Duffy hopped around for a few seconds before he came off the field. He stopped in order for the umpire to check him for foreign substances, and then returned to the dugout while moving gingerly. Duffy returned for the second inning and retired the side in order.
“We lost a lot of games in our first two weeks of the first half,” Duffy said. “Anytime you get out on the right foot, you get to have a game like this — our offense handled it today, it was awesome to watch — so you want to get off on the right foot and ride that momentum train for sure.”
The All-Star duo combined to give the Royals a one-run lead in the bottom of the first: Merrifield singled to center, and scored on a Perez broken-bat RBI single through the hole between first and second base.
The Royals expanded their lead in the second after a Jorge Soler walk and Alberto’s first double put runners on second and third. With one out, Lopez drove in both runners when he ripped a 1-2 fastball into right field for a two-run single. Lopez advanced to second on the play when Orioles right fielder Anthony Santander threw home.
Merrifield’s double up the left-field line scored Lopez for the third run of the inning. With two outs, Perez roped the first pitch of his second at-bat into left field for his second RBI single in the first two innings of the game.
The four-run inning gave the Royals a 5-0 lead and put the Orioles on their heels the rest of the night.
The lead reached six runs on Merrifield’s fourth-inning sacrifice fly.
The Orioles answered with a run in the top of the fourth, but the Royals’ lead never slipped to fewer than five runs the rest of the game.
Lopez added a two-run double in the seventh, and he scored on Merrifield’s fourth hit of the night.
“You’ve kind of got to read the game, read what’s going on, the situation,” Lopez said. “You know that Whit’s behind me, so more times than not I’m going to get a good pitch to hit — at least one pitch every at-bat.
“But I’m not trying to do too much, not trying to get outside of myself. I know I’ve said this a lot this year, but I’m just trying to be Nicky Lopez, just trying to get on base, just trying to do anything I can.”
Royals reliever Jake Brentz gave up a solo home run to Orioles catcher Pedro Severino in the eighth inning to close out the scoring.
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 10:29 PM with the headline "Kansas City Royals tandem of Nicky Lopez and Whit Merrifield sparks offensive outburst."
