Bobby Witt Jr. homered to lead the Kansas City Royals past the visiting Milwaukee Brewers 6-4 on Wednesday afternoon in the rubber game of their three-game set.
Witt led off the eighth inning with his fifth homer — and first since April 11. He scored three times and leads the majors with 36 runs scored.
After Milwaukee opened the game with back-to-back doubles by Brice Turang and William Contreras for an early 1-0 lead, Kansas City also began its half of the frame with a pair of doubles.
Maikel Garcia doubled to left leading off the first, then center fielder Blake Perkins slipped and fell while chasing Witt’s double to right-center. Garcia and Witt scored on sacrifice flies by Vinnie Pasquantino and Michael Massey for a 2-1 lead.
The Royals managed just one additional hit against Joe Ross (1-4) over the next four innings. He exited after opening the sixth with a walk to Witt, who scored on Massey’s second sacrifice fly, increasing the Royals’ advantage to 3-1.
Ross allowed three runs on three hits and two walks with two strikeouts.
Making his 100th career start, Kansas City starter Brady Singer (3-1) pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing a run on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
Milwaukee’s Gary Sanchez opened the seventh with his fifth home run, an opposite-field shot off Nick Anderson, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
Oliver Dunn followed with a walk and moved to second on a groundout. He tried to score the tying run on Turang’s hit to left but was cut down at the plate by left fielder MJ Melendez. Angel Zerpa came on to strike out Christian Yelich, preserving the one-run lead.
Turang’s third double drove in Sanchez in the ninth before James McArthur got two groundouts for a two-out save, his eighth.
Pasquantino had two of Kansas City’s nine hits while Massey’s career-best 10-game hitting streak came to an end. Adam Frazier’s RBI hit in the three-run eighth snapped an 0-for-20 slide.
The Royals completed their homestand at 3-3 and have won five of eight games. The Brewers have dropped 4 of 5 and 7 of 11.
–Field Level Media
