St. Louis Cardinals at Kansas City Royals

· Major League Baseball

St. Louis Cardinals

60-57, 29-30 Away

Final
8 - 5

Kansas City Royals

64-53, 37-25 Home

Willson Contreras hits pair of 2-run homers in Cardinals' 8-5 victory over Royals

Contreras opened the scoring in the first with a two-run shot off the top of the bullpen fence in right and added another two-run shot in the ninth, blasting his 15th homer 424 feet to left for his 15th multi-homer game.

“An absolute tank to left,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Some really good at-bats and big swings by Contreras.”

Trailing 5-3 after five innings, the Cardinals scored five runs on seven hits against six relievers.

Will Smith (0-4) retired one of three batters faced in the eighth and, after a failed Kansas City challenge on a potential inning-ending double play grounder, St. Louis took a 6-5 lead on Victor Scott II’s two-out, two-run double.

“I was telling myself if he’s safe, it’s going to be definitely a critical situation in the ballgame,” Scott said. “Being able to come through right there is definitely special. There’s runners on base, so I’m just trying to do damage.”

Contreras, Alex Burleson and Brendan Donovan each had three of St. Louis’ 13 hits.

Matthew Liberatore (3-3) threw three hitless innings in relief of Miles Mikolas, who allowed five runs on eight hits in four innings.

“My goodness, look at what (Liberatore) did,” Marmol said. “36 pitches, three innings, didn’t give up anything at all. His stuff was sharp. He was pretty dominant. It was good to go to him early. (He) just shut them down.”

Mikolas has a 7.11 ERA over his past five starts. Ryan Hensley allowed a hit and a walk in finishing for his 37th save.

“I felt like we had a pretty good game plan going in,” Michael Massey said. “I felt like we did a pretty good job against him.”

Burleson lined his team-leading 20th home run to right leading off the third as the Cardinals built a 3-0 lead.

Kyle Isbel’s third-inning RBI triple snapped his 0-for-21 slide, plating the first run Mikolas surrendered to the Royals after 19 career scoreless frames. RBI singles by Massey and Salvador Perez tied it.

Maikel Garcia’s RBI double into the left-field corner and Massey’s deep sacrifice fly to center gave Kansas City a 5-3 lead in the fourth.

Michael Lorenzen made his second start since his July 29 acquisition from Texas, working 4 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

Massey had three of Kansas City’s 10 hits.

The Royals were homerless, snapping a 13-game streak with at least one home run, the second longest streak in club history.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals RHP John Schreiber (right knee patella tendon inflammation) threw a bullpen session Thursday.

Cardinals RHP Andre Pallante (4-6, 4.43 ERA) was set to start Saturday against RHP Michael Wacha (8-6, 3.55).

How can I watch St. Louis Cardinals vs. Kansas City Royals?

TV Channel: Cardinals at Royals 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
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Matchup Prediction

Royals: 62.2%

Cardinals: 37.8%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Pasquantino grounded into double play, second to shortstop to first, Witt Jr. out at second.
	9th Inning	Witt Jr. walked, Massey to second.
	9th Inning	Massey singled to right.
	9th Inning	Isbel lined out to left.
	9th Inning	Helsley relieved Kittredge
	9th Inning	Scott II struck out looking.

Statistics

STL		KC
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	0
12	Ground Balls	11
7	Strikeouts	7
8	Runs Batted In	5
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
13	Hits	10
0	Stolen Bases	1
6	Walks	3
0	Catcher Interference	0
8	Runs	5
0	Ground Into Double Play	1
0	Sacrifice Flies	1
39	At Bats	35
3	Home Runs	0
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
23	Runners Left On Base	13
0	Triples	1
1	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
5	Doubles	1
20	Fly Balls	18
0	Caught Stealing	0
177	Pitches	144
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
27	Total Bases	13
45	Plate Appearances	39
486.0	Projected Home Runs	0.0
8	Extra Base Hits	2
10.7	Runs Created	4.5
.333	Batting Average	.286
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.692	Slugging Percentage	.371
.513	Secondary Average	.200
.422	On Base Percentage	.333
1.115	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.705
0.6	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.6
11.1	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	4.5
64.0	Batter Rating	35.5
13.0	At Bats Per Home Run	0.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.93	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.69
.359	Isolated Power	.086
0.86	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.43
.133	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.077
.179	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.086
16.0	Runs Produced	10.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.8	Patience Ratio	0.4
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.4
108.3	MLB Rating	85.3
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0