Royals Push Winning Streak to Three

With Whit Merrifield and the Kansas City Royals piling up the runs, Homer Bailey went on a mission Tuesday night.

Merrifield had two homers and a career-high six RBIs, Bailey worked into the eighth inning with 121 pitches and the Royals beat the Seattle Mariners 9-0.

The Royals jumped on struggling starter Yusei Kikuchi to get their third straight win. Merrifield drove a three-run homer against Kikuchi (3-5) in the fourth and added a two-run shot against Jesse Biddle in the eighth. Jorge Soler also homered for the Royals, and rookie Nicky Lopez had three hits.

That allowed Bailey to shift his focus toward covering as many innings as possible. He struck out six and gave Kansas City’s bullpen a breather.

And swing they did, right from the start. The Royals started the game with three consecutive singles, taking a 2-0 lead on Alex Gordon’s two-run single. Soler added his 20th home run in the third to make it 3-0 and Bailey started rolling around the time Merrifield hit his first home run that made it 6-0 in the fourth.

After stranding two runners in each of the first three innings, Bailey retired 14 of the next 15 he faced. As the game reached the eighth, Bailey was asked if he could start the inning. His response? ”Absolutely.”

Bailey (6-6) allowed just one baserunner past second in 7 2/3 innings and struck out six with just two walks.

Kikuchi allowed six runs in five innings. The Japanese rookie has had an unsettling June after a fairly positive start to his major league career. He’s 0-4 in five starts since May 25 and has allowed eight home runs during that stretch. Merrifield, who also had a two-run home run in the eighth inning and a sac fly, said Kikuchi got himself into trouble by falling behind in the count at key times.