Tommy Edman homered twice in support of six strong innings from Steven Matz as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the host Kansas City Royals 5-4 on Saturday evening.
The Cardinals grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Edman’s two-out, two-run home run to left-center. His 10th homer, a solo shot in the eighth inning, capped St. Louis’ scoring. It was Edman’s third career multi-homer game and first since May 26, 2021, against the host Chicago White Sox.
Matz (4-7) needed just five pitches to dispatch the Royals in the first and held them hitless through the first eight batters with the help of stellar defensive plays by Nolan Arenado and Nolan Gorman.
After surrendering three straight hits in the third inning, including a two-run homer, Matz retired 10 of 11 batters to complete six innings. He allowed the two runs on four hits with five strikeouts. Matz is unbeaten since returning to the starting rotation July 9, posting a 1.86 ERA and 4-0 record in seven starts.
Arenado delivered an RBI double in the third and collected three of the Cardinals’ nine hits, extending his hitting streak to 10 games.
Willson Contreras’ looping single to right gave St. Louis a 4-2 lead in the fifth, extending his hitting streak to six games during which he has nine RBIs.
With two outs in the third, Nelson Velazquez hammered Matz’s 2-2 sinker 441 feet to left, cutting the deficit to 3-2. It was Velazquez’s second straight game with a home run.
The Royals opened the eighth inning with three hits against Giovanny Gallegos, trimming the Cardinals’ lead to 5-3, but JoJo Romero came on to induce a pair of groundouts to escape the jam.
Romero allowed a run on three singles in the ninth inning before Arenado turned an athletic double play to end the game with the tying run at second. Romero collected his second save.
Cole Ragans (3-4) took his first loss in a Royals uniform. In five innings, he surrendered four runs on seven hits and four walks. He struck out five.
The announced attendance of 37,016 was the Royals’ second-largest home crowd of the year, with a significant percentage of fans wearing Cardinal red.
The loss snapped Kansas City’s season-best seven-game home winning streak. They have lost 6 of 8 overall.
–Field Level Media
