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 Take for example Monday night. Right-hander Greg Holland could not
protect a six-run lead in the ninth inning, so with the tying run up
and nobody out, manager Ned Yost turned to right-hander Wade Davis
and just like that, game over.
Davis recorded the final three outs, stranding runners at second and
third, to earn his eighth save and lock down an 8-5 Royals victory
over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.
"That's a big security blanket, but what Wade did was phenomenal,"
Yost said. "You get into a ballgame where you've got a six-run lead
going into the ninth inning and your closer is going out to finish
it up, you naturally kind of drop your guard a bit. Wade didn't
allow that to happen. He got himself up and came in and shut the
door with the tying run at the plate."
The Royals needed him Monday after Holland, who himself came into
the game with some gaudy numbers, put four consecutive batters on to
open the ninth.
Milwaukee got two on a pinch-hit single by Martin Maldonado, who
scored when catcher Jonathan Lucroy hit his second double of the day
to make it a three-run game.
With right fielder Ryan Braun, first baseman Adam Lind and third
baseman Aramis Ramirez -- the Brewers' 3-4-5 hitters -- due up, Yost
made the switch.
"That's just rust, that's my fault," Yost said. "He hadn't pitched
in six days and I had an opportunity to throw him a game in St.
Louis, to try to keep him fresh.
"Just six days that's a lot of in-between time so, yeah, it was
rough. Stuff was really good, but everything was kind of coming back
to the middle. It's just location rust more than anything else."
Braun battled Davis to a full count before striking out and Lind
followed with a rocket right at shortstop Alcides Escobar.
Davis got Ramirez to pop out to end it.
"It took him three pitches before he settled in," Yost said. "He got
to 3-0 on Braun and then it was pretty lights out from that point."
Kansas City cruised for much of the game after getting to Brewers
starter Kyle Lohse early. The Royals got three on the right-hander
in the first inning, then made it a 5-0 game in the fifth when
center fielder Lorenzo Cain belted his fifth home run of the season.
"It's tough to play down 5-0 when you're in a hole," Brewers manager
Craig Counsell said. "(In) the first inning, he got behind in the
count to a couple of guys and it was ground ball base hits, but I
thought he got on track a little bit. The mistake to Cain hurt us."
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Lohse was charged with five runs, all earned, on five hits, two
walks and a hit batter while striking out two in five innings of
work.
"They did a nice job of just putting the ball in play and putting it
in the right spot early on," said Lohse, who is 0-3 with a 7.31 ERA
in his last six starts. "I kind of shut them down for a while there
and then a walk and not executing a good slider (on the home run).
It put us in a big hole."
Lohse's counterpart, Edinson Volquez, didn't fare much better. He
also went five innings and gave up six hits and two walks while
striking out two, but the Brewers did little with the chances they
got.
Both runs against Volquez came in the fifth on a two-run double by
Lucroy.
Escobar added insurance runs with RBI singles in the sixth and
eighth innings to finish the day with two hits.
Cain, along with catcher Salvador Perez, right fielder Alex Rios and
second baseman Omar Infante also had two hits each for the Royals,
who collected a total 13 hits off four Milwaukee pitchers
NOTES: Royals manager Ned Yost said RHP Yordano Ventura threw a
35-pitch bullpen session Monday but will not start Wednesday as
originally scheduled. Instead Ventura will be bumped back to Friday
against the Red Sox, giving him two extra days to recover from a
bout of numbness in his right hand that forced him from his last
start after only three innings. RHP Joe Blanton will make the start
in Ventura's place. ... Brewers CF Carlos Gomez was scratched from
the starting lineup because of tightness in his leg that kept him
from three of Milwaukee's last four games. Manager Craig Counsell
said Gomez was "day to day" and the goal is to get him "close to 100
percent."
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