Pirates End Scoring Drought But Thumped By Royals; Still Winless on Road Trip
The good news for the Pittsburgh Pirates is they ended a scoring drought that lasted a staggering 30 innings. The bad news is that they were thumped 9-3 by the Kansas City Royals on Monday night at Kaufman Stadium for a fourth-straight loss.
How We Got There
Vinnie Pasquantino put the Royals (44-48) ahead 1-0 with a two-out solo home run off Andrew Heaney in the bottom of the first.
The Pirates (38-54) took a short-lived lead in the top of the third on Tommy Pham’s 428-foot two-run home run to left-center.
Kansas City responded with three runs in the bottom of the third inning, which was the final inning of a short start for Heaney (4-8).
Bobby Witt Jr. hit a two-run home run off Chase Shugart in the bottom of the fourth, and Salvador Perez extended the lead to 7-2 with a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth.
Witt drove in his third run of the game with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth. Nick Loftin hit the Royals’ fourth homer of the game, a solo homer off Génesis Cabrera in the eighth.
Alexander Canario singled home a run with two outs in the top of the ninth.
Key Moment
The Pirates finally established some momentum for the first time this road trip on Tommy Pham’s home run, but it quickly evaporated following a big inning from the Royals.
Star of the Game
Royals rookie starter Noah Cameron (3-4) worked a career-high seven innings and held the Pirates to two runs on on three hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.
Stat to Know
The Royals entered play with 15 home runs at home this season, the fewest in baseball (Pittsburgh has the second-fewest with 30). They also hadn’t had a multi-homer game at Kaufman Stadium this year.
Notable Performances
- Andrew Heaney: 3.0 innings, six hits, four runs, one walk, two strikeouts, 76 pitches/49 strikes
- Tommy Pham: 1 for 3, one home run, two RBI, one walk, one run
Noteworthy
- Tommy Pham’s two-run home run in the third gave the Pirates their first runs since the eighth inning of Wednesday’s win over the St. Louis Cardinals. It snapped a stretch of 30 straight scoreless innings.
- Bryan Reynolds snapped an 0-for-20 slump with a leadoff base hit in the fourth. It was his first hit of July.
- The Pirates reinstated RHP Colin Holderman from the 15-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Up Next
RHP Mitch Keller (3-10, 3.64 ERA) starts for the Pirates in the second game of the series on Tuesday night. RHP Seth Lugo (6-5, 2.65 ERA) gets the ball for the Royals. First pitch: 7:40 p.m. ET.
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