The Kansas City Royals extended Chicago’s misery at Wrigley Field with a dominant 9-1 victory on Sunday afternoon, completing a sweep of their interleague series and handing the Cubs their franchise-record 13th consecutive loss at the “Friendly Confines”
Andrew Benintendi had a hot bat for the Royals, with three RBI’s and three base hits, with the slumping Carlos Santana adding three hits. For and up-and-down 2021 Royals squad, late August has Kansas City on an upswing, winners of six of their last seven games as the team heads to Houston for a three-game series with the Astros, beginning Monday night. Hunter Dozier added a pair of RBI’s in Sunday afternoon’s victory.
One of the brightest spots in a rebuilding year in Kansas City continues to be right-hander Carlos Hernandez, who used a high-octane fastball to shut down the Cubs, firing seven innings and striking out a career-high eight batters, allowing one run and four hits.
Frank Schwindel had two hits for the Cubs, who have had their season hit the skids after trading away stars and free agents-to-be Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, and Craig Kimbrel heading into the trade deadline at the end of July.
Losing pitcher Alec Mills was blistered by the Royals bats, allowing seven runs and 11 hits in four innings of work, dropping to 5-6 on the season.
Lefty Daniel Lynch (3-3, 5.12 ERA) will start for the Royals on Monday night, against former Royal Zack Greinke (11-3, 3.43 ERA) for the Astros.
Here is the complete MLB scoreboard for Sunday, August 22, 2021:
Atlanta 3, Baltimore 1
San Francisco 2, Oakland 1
Detroit 5, Toronto 3
Texas at Boston – PP Rain
Tampa Bay 9, Chicago White Sox 0
Minnesota at NY Yankees – PP Rain
Seattle 6, Houston 3
Cleveland 3, LA Angels 0 (at Williamsport, PA)
Cincinnati 3, Miami 1
Milwaukee 7, Washington 3
St. Louis 3, Pittsburgh 0
Arizona 8, Colorado 4
Philadelphia 7, San Diego 4
NY Mets 7, LA Dodgers 2
