Right-hander Jordan Lyles broke an 11-game losing streak as the Kansas City Royals rallied past host Tampa Bay with nine unanswered runs Saturday afternoon, handling the Rays 9-4 in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The visitors had dropped all 15 starts by Lyles (1-11) this season, but the first-year Royals hurler locked in after allowing four early runs.
He won for the first time since beating the New York Yankees last Sept. 30 while with the Baltimore Orioles.
Lyles yielded four runs and eight hits over six innings, with two strikeouts and a walk.
Freddy Fermin was 3-for-3 with a three-run homer and two runs, while Drew Waters hit a solo homer and had two runs as the Royals won for the second time in the four-game series.
Edward Olivares went 3-for-4 with a solo homer, double and three runs. Nick Pratto and Bobby Witt Jr. doubled and drove in two runs apiece.
Tampa Bay’s Wander Franco, who was benched for the first two games of the set, belted a 417-foot homer to center in his first at-bat back. The mercurial shortstop went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run.
Vidal Brujan notched two hits, including a double, and stole two bases, but the Rays had only two hits over the final seven innings.
The Rays rode Yonny Chirinos (3-3) for 5 1/3 innings and 96 pitches, but he surrendered eight runs on nine hits.
After Franco’s homer and a single by Randy Arozarena, Josh Lowe sliced a two-out double for a 2-0 lead in the first.
In the second, Franco added another RBI with a two-out single. Luke Raley followed with an RBI single as the Rays piled up four runs on six hits against Lyles in two innings.
Leading off the third, Waters rocked his second homer of the series and third overall with a 415-foot blast. Pratto’s RBI groundout and Witt’s sacrifice fly made it 4-3.
Kansas City continued its push in the fourth as Fermin stroked a three-run homer, his fourth. Then Witt doubled in Pratto for the club’s seventh straight run.
As Lyles settled in and allowed just two hits over his final four innings, Pratto added an insurance marker on a groundout in the sixth.
–Field Level Media
