Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Danny Duffy delivers a pitch to the St. Louis Cardinals in the third inning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on June 2, 2014. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
Royals starter Danny Duffy was coming off a rough start against Houston where he blamed dead arm as the reason for allowing five runs in four innings. Cardinals starter Shelby Miller was coming off a start where he gave up a career high seven runs in five innings against the Yankees. On Monday night, in the first of four games between our I-70 rivals, they were both dealing through the first six innings, before things unraveled for Miller and the Cardinals in a 6-0 Royals victory at Busch Stadium.
Kansas City Royals Mike Moustakas swings, hitting a two RBI double in the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on June 2, 2014. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
Duffy (3-5), allowed one hit and one walk in his six innings of work while striking out five. The Royals had just two hits off Miller through the first six, but then opened the seventh with four straight hits, starting with a lead-off homer from Alex Gordon. Mike Moustakas in his second game back from Triple-A Omaha, hit a two-run double later in the inning off Miller to give the Royals a 3-0 lead.
Miller (6-5), gave up a lead off single to start the eighth and Randy Choate came in and got an out, but walked a batter, putting runners on first and second. Jason Motte entered and gave up a single to Salvador Perez scoring Omar Infante, but a two-base error by Randy Grichuck scored Gordon from first and moved Perez to third. Lorenzo Cain’s sac fly scored Perez for the sixth and final run of the game.
In addition to missing the ball on the Perez single, Grichuck struck out three times, but did have one of the three Cardinals’ hits. Matt Holliday collected the other two with singles. Perez went 3 for 4 for the Royals.
The Cardinals have now been outscored 14-0 in the last two games and have managed just seven hits.
The Royals are 27-30, six games out of first place. The Cardinals are 30-28, five games out of first place.
