The Royals grabbed their first home series win of the season yesterday with a 4-3 win over the Devil Rays at Kauffman Stadium Sunday. Starting pitcher Zack Greinke pitched well, but is still winless on the season. He lasted 6 2/3 innings and allowed just one run off eight hits and a walk. But Greinke, who struck out seven batters Sunday, left the game in the seventh with two men on with two outs and the score tied 1-1. Reliever Mike MacDougal got the final out of the inning and pitched the eighth to get the win.
Kansas City got on the board in the third inning when Angel Berroa hit the second inside-the-park home run of his career. Aubrey Huff tied the game in the sixth inning with an RBI single. The Royals regained the lead in the seventh when back-up catcher Alberto Castillo drove in two runs with a triple, and scored later in the inning with when Devil Rays reliever Mark Hendrickson balked. That made it 4-1 Royals.
Late-inning leads and the Royals haven’t gotten along very well this year and for a moment it seemed like Kansas City would find a way to lose again. Rookie reliever Ambiorix Burgos put down the first two batters he faced and appeared to be on his way to an easy save, but his control got the best of him. Burgos walked Josh Phelps, who later stole second. Alex Sanchez swung and missed at a third strike, but the pitch got away from Castillo and the Devil Rays had runners at first and third.
Mike Wood was called from the bullpen to get the final out of the game, which he did—but not before Julio hit a single to left to make it 4-3. Wood got Carl Crawford to fly out to center field and the game was over.
The Royals took three out of four this weekend.
