(TSX / STATS) — KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Whit Merrifield began the season in the minors, but he has reached stratospheric heights since being recalled.
Merrifield extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a two-run double and Lorenzo Cain homered in a six-run fifth inning as the Kansas City Royals crushed the Cleveland Indians 12-5 Saturday.
The run total represents a Royals’ season high, while their 13 hits tied a season best.
Merrifield’s hitting streak is the longest in the majors this season. The last Royal with a longer streak was Alex Gordon, 19 games in 2011.
“It’s always a bonus,” Merrifield said to extend the hitting streak, during which he is batting .387.
Indians right-hander Carlos Carrasco (5-3), who went 3-0 in May, limited the Royals to one single the first four innings, but lost it suddenly in the fifth. The Royals sent 10 men to the plate and the six runs rivaled their biggest inning of the year.
Jorge Bonifacio and Brandon Moss started it with singles. Merrifield plated both with a double to right-center. Gordon walked before Alcides Escobar popped up a bunt to Carrasco.
Mike Moustakas doubled down the right-field line, scoring Merrifield and Gordon. That finished Carrasco’s day after 77 pitches.
“Once we kind of got rolling, it was nice to pour it on like that,” Merrifield said. “Against a team like that, you can never have enough runs.”
Carrasco was charged with five runs on five hits and two walks, while striking out three in 4 1/3 innings.
“I give up five runs on five hits,” Carrasco said. “There’s nothing you can do, but get ready for the next start.”
He said Merrifield hit a fastball down and away.
“I was looking for a ground ball double play there and he got a double,” Carrasco said.
Nick Goody replaced Carrasco. Goody had not allowed an earned run in 20 1/3 innings in his first 17 outings, but that was about to change. Cain splashed down a 2-2 pitch into the left-field fountains for his third home run, making it 6-3.
Right-hander Jason Hammel (2-6) was the benefactor of the Royals’ offensive splurge to pick up his second victory of the year in 11 starts. He yielded three runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings. Hammel struck out seven, matching his season high, and walked none for the first time this season.
“I stayed in the strike zone with quality pitches,” Hammel said. “A lot of fly balls, but overall a much better job.”
The Royals added five runs, four unearned, in the seventh on Eric Hosmer, Cain and Gordon run-producing singles and two more scored on a Jose Ramirez fielding error. The Indians committed three errors.
“I thought we caught a break when they popped a bunt up,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “But from there everything just unraveled. They hit the ball hard. We didn’t catch it.
“It was a sloppy game from that point on. We didn’t do anything good. We’re going to have to get a little bit of rest and come back tomorrow and play a lot better because that wasn’t close to good enough.”
Salvador Perez’s eighth-inning double scored Hosmer with the final Kansas City run.
The Indians scored three runs in the second. Carlos Santana led off the inning with a homer into the Cleveland bullpen. Rookie Bradley Zimmer homered with Ramirez aboard to give the Indians a 3-0 advantage.
“We did a good job early with Carlos and that first-pitch homer and Zim with a really good at-bat,” Francona said. “It looked like we had him (Hammel) on the ropes and instead we let him settle in. And you look up four innings later and he put up a bunch of zeroes.”
Santana drove in two more runs in the eighth with a double off Joakim Soria.
NOTES: The Royals optioned struggling and seldom used OF Jorge Soler to Triple-A Omaha. Soler had started just one of the previous eight games and had a puny .164 batting average. OF Billy Burns was recalled from the Storm Chasers, with whom he was hitting .246 with 13 stolen bases in 39 games. Burns entered the game in the eighth inning as a defensive replacement for CF Lorenzo Cain. … Indians OF Lonnie Chisenhall got the clearance from the medical staff to return to the field after a concussion. He reported Saturday to Double-A Akron. … Saturday would have been the 26th birthday of Royals RHP Yordano Ventura, who died in a vehicle accident Jan. 22 in the Dominican Republic. “We try to push out the memories of the cemetery where he’s buried and where he’s at now to where he was back then,” Royals manager Ned Yost said when he looks at a picture everyday of Ventura in the clubhouse. … Indians RHP Trevor Bauer and Royals LHP Eric Skoglund are the Sunday probables for the series finale.
Photo credit – Orlin Wagner / Associated Press / Kansas City, MO