Kyle Isbel’s three-run double highlighted a five-run sixth inning while Vinnie Pasquantino homered, doubled and singled as the Kansas City Royals won 9-6 over the visiting Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night.
Jonathan India had a two-run double and Bobby Witt Jr. recorded two RBI singles as the Royals evened the three-game set with their sixth win in nine games.
Austin Riley and Marcell Ozuna homered for the Braves, who removed Ronald Acuna Jr. in the sixth inning after he struggled to corral Pasquantino’s double. The team described the ailment as Achilles tightness.
Fresh off signing a two-year, $46 million contract extension to stay in Kansas City, Seth Lugo (8-5) held the Braves off the scoreboard for five innings. He wound up allowing seven hits, three runs and four walks over 5 2/3 innings while registering five strikeouts.
Ozuna, subject of consistent trade rumors, added an RBI single in the seventh for the Braves, who have lost eight of 10. Recently acquired Erick Fedde (4-11) made his first start for the Braves and gave up four runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked two and fanned three.
Fedde retired the first two batters he faced before Pasquantino sent the ball just inside the right field foul pole for a 1-0 Kansas City lead.
In the second, India hit the left field fence on a ball that drifted away from Atlanta’s Jurickson Profar to drive in two. Witt followed with a run-scoring hit.
Lugo was cruising until two outs in the sixth, when Riley took him deep over the center-field wall. After Michael Harris II singled, Ozuna clubbed his second homer of the series to make it 4-3. Lugo then loaded the bases, but Hunter Harvey entered and got Profar on a lineout to center.
The Royals, on the other hand, didn’t waste their bases-loaded opportunity in the bottom of the sixth. Isbel cleared the bags with a hit off Enyel De Los Santos that Profar appeared to take the wrong angle on. The ball reached the left field wall for a 7-4 Kansas City edge. Isbel scored on another hit from Witt, who stole second and scored on Pasquantino’s ground-rule double.
–Field Level Media
