The Royals took on the Cardinals in game one of a double header in St Louis with hopes to come away with a series win after an impressive 10-7 win just two days prior. The offense appeared alive in St Louis and Jac Caglianone’s appearance seemed to spark something in Kansas City. The Royals looked good, taking an early 3-0 lead, but the Royals bullpen was shakey, spoiling yet another incredible outing by Noah Cameron.
The game started with a bang, as Jonathan India took Miles Mikolas yard with the second pitch of the game to get the Royals the lead. The Royals were also able to get two-out singles from Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez, but a ground out by Jac Caglianone put an end to the first inning with the Royals up 1-0 early.
The Royals threatened to score in the third with a single by Jonathan India and a walk from Bobby Witt Jr to start the inning. Unfortunately, a ground out by Maikel Garcia resulted in a double play, and Vinnie Pasquantino popped out to end the inning. But in the fourth, the Royals were able to pick up right where they left off, with back-to-back doubles by Salvador Perez and Jac Caglianone to put the Royals up 2-0. Jac’s first big league hit came on a hard grounder up the first baseline in an 0-2 count, and also got him his first ever RBI.
The offense came back again in the fifth, as a one-out single by Bobby Witt Jr got things started, and he was also able to steal second uncontested with an incredible jump. Maikel Garcia hit a sacrifice fly to right center, and Vinnie Pasquantino was able to come through with an RBI single down the third baseline to put the Royals up 3-0.
Miles Mikolas had a solid game, going six innings, allowing eight hits and a walk, which is not great, but he was able to limit the damage to just three runs. On the other hand, Noah Cameron was electric yet again for the Royals, pitching six scoreless innings and getting his ERA down to 0.85. Cameron struggled with some walks in the second inning, but after that was nails and the Cardinals couldn’t touch him. He only allowed four base runners the whole game, and was incredibly effective forcing bad contact with his slider.
The Royals moved to the bullpen for the seventh with John Schreiber coming into the game. Schreiber struggled; he gave up three hits and two runs, only one of which was earned after an error between Bobby Witt Jr and Michael Massey trying to turn a double play loaded the bases. Daniel Lynch came in to close out the inning and forced two pop-ups, minimized the damage to just two runs in the seventh, and held onto the Royals’ lead at 3-2 going into the eighth.
Lynch returned for the eighth and got the first out, but after hitting Brandon Donovan, was pulled in favor of Taylor Clarke to face Wilson Contreras. Clarke was able to force Contreras to pop out, but Ivan Herrera was able to pick him up with a 425 foot blast to center field after Clarke left a slider over the middle. Clarke bounced back and forced a groundout by Nolan Arenado but the Cardinals went up 4-3 going into the ninth.
Drew Waters made hard contact but flew out to center, opening the top of the ninth with an out. Waters was followed up by Michael Massey who was able to place his first hit of the game in front of the left fielder, and was pulled for Nick Loftin to be a pinch runner. Kyle Isbel followed him up with a single up the middle to get Loftin to third and then a flyout by Jonathan India tied the game in the ninth at 4-4.
Jonathan Bowlan came out of the Royals bullpen for the bottom of the ninth looking to send the game to extra innings. He was able to face the seven, eight and nine hitters and forced three groundouts and the game headed to extra innings.
Vinnie Pasquantino came up as the leadoff hitter to start the tenth inning, and got a hit just past the second baseman and Garcia scored. Jojo Romero was able to force three outs after that and the Royals handed Carlos Estevez the ball to get the save with a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the tenth. Estevez gave up a leadoff hit to Lars Nootbar, but a poor read by Yohel Pozo held him at third. Unfortunately a chopper by Mason Wynn resulted in a big bounce to Salvador Perez at third and Pages scored from third. With one out the Royals walked Brendan Donovan and Wilson Contreras was able to provide a walk off single to left center.
A tough loss for Kansas City, and they will look to take the series with a win in game two of the double header this afternoon. Thomas Hatch appears to be in line for the first major league appearance since 2025 as the starter in game two.
Winners
Noah Cameron – Went six scoreless
Jac Caglianone – Got first major league hit and an RBI
Vinnie Pasquantino – 4-5 and two RBIs
Jonathan India – 2-4 with a home run
Michael Massey – Got a hit when the team needed it most
Bobby Witt Jr – 1-3, 2 BBs, one run scored, one stolen base
Losers
Maikel Garcia – 0-5 with a run scored as the extra man in the 10th
Drew Waters – 0-5 with 2 Ks
Royals Bullpen – Everyone but Jonathan Bowlan looked shaky and allowed at least one run
