Kris Bubic pitched seven shutout innings, Vinnie Pasquantino broke a scoreless tie with a two-run home run in the eighth and the Kansas City Royals opened a three-game road series against the San Francisco Giants with a 3-1 victory on Monday.
Bubic (5-2) matched zeros with fellow left-hander Robbie Ray before the Giants switched over to Tyler Rogers (2-2) to start the eighth.
Jonathan India’s one-out double set the stage for Pasquantino, who belted a 1-0 slider over the high right field wall for his eighth homer of the season.
Held to two hits for seven innings, the Giants got singles by Sam Huff and Heliot Ramos and a two-out RBI double by Jung Hoo Lee to close within 2-1 in the last of the eighth. However, John Schreiber, the third Royals pitcher, got Matt Chapman to foul out to strand the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base.
Kansas City tacked on an insurance run in the ninth on a two-out RBI single by Kyle Isbel. Carlos Estevez then worked around a one-out single by pinch hitter LaMonte Wade Jr. in a scoreless last of the ninth for his 14th save.
A product of the San Jose suburb of Cupertino and a former standout at Stanford, Bubic continued his brilliant month of May, striking out five and walking three. In his four starts this month, he has allowed just one run in 25 1/3 innings.
The Giants’ best chance against Bubic came in the seventh. With runners at second and third with one out, Tyler Fitzgerald hit a soft liner right at drawn-in shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who flipped to third baseman Maikel Garcia in time to nail a retreating Willy Adames and end the threat.
Ray, who entered 6-0 through nine starts this season, limited the Royals to six hits in his seven innings. He walked one and struck out seven in his fifth outing this year allowing one or fewer runs.
Pasquantino, Garcia, Isbel and Mark Canha had two hits apiece for the Royals, who won for just the third time in their past nine games. Kansas City had played two similar games — a 1-0 loss and 2-1 win — over the weekend at home against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Lee and Casey Schmidt hit doubles for the Giants, who used 1-0 and 3-2 wins over the weekend to complete a three-game home sweep of the Athletics.
–Field Level Media
