Salvador Perez went 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBIs as the Kansas City Royals defeated the host Seattle Mariners 6-3 on Tuesday.
Five Royals combined for 4 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief as Kansas City won for just the second time in the past 10 games. Lucas Erceg (3-2) got the victory after quelling a seventh-inning jam, and Carlos Estevez worked a perfect ninth for his 23rd save.
Randy Arozarena homered for the Mariners, his third in the first two games of the four-game series. Seattle took the opener 6-2 on Monday.
The Royals scored once in the first inning on Tuesday and twice in the second off Seattle right-hander Emerson Hancock (3-5).
Jonathan India led off the game with a ground-rule double to right-center field and scored on Maikel Garcia’s two-out single to center.
Rookie Jac Caglianone drew a leadoff walk in the second and scored on Nick Loftin’s double to left. John Rave lined a single to right to move Loftin to third, Kyle Isbel’s RBI forceout made it 3-0.
Jorge Polanco led off the bottom of the second with a single but was picked off by Royals right-hander Michael Lorenzen. Arozarena then hit a solo shot into the Mariners’ bullpen in left-center.
The Royals added two more runs in the fifth. Bobby Witt Jr. reached on an infield single and Vinnie Pasquantino doubled to left-center, the ball just eluding diving center fielder Julio Rodriguez. An out later, Perez laced a two-run double off the wall in right-center, on a ball Rodriguez misplayed, to increase the lead to 5-1.
With the exception of Arozarena’s homer, Lorenzen cruised through the first four innings, but he couldn’t make it through the fifth to qualify for the victory.
Luke Raley led off the bottom of the fifth with a double to center and took third on a groundout. Ben Williamson hit a double down the right field line to score Raley, and with two outs, J.P. Crawford blooped a single to left to make it 5-3.
With Rodriguez coming to the plate, the Royals turned to John Schreiber, who got the Seattle star to line out to right to end the inning.
Lorenzen gave up three runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings, with no walks and five strikeouts. Hancock permitted five runs on seven hits over six innings, with three walks and one strikeout.
The Royals scored their final run in the ninth, spoiling the major league debut of Seattle right-hander Juan Burgos. Witt doubled with one out, stole third and scored on Perez’s broken-bat single to center with two outs.
–Field Level Media
