KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Vinnie Pasquantino homered and drove in three runs, Zack Greinke won for the first time since last August and the Kansas City Royals snapped a 10-game home losing streak by beating the Baltimore Orioles 6-0 on Wednesday night.
Greinke (1-4) won for the first time in 14 starts, allowing just three singles in five innings and striking out three.
“Everything worked good,” Greinke said. “Defense was great, hitting was great, pitching was good. Glad to be getting some outs, not pitching like I did the last couple of times.”
He threw only 44 pitches —- his fewest in a start since tossing 43 for Arizona at Boston on Aug. 14, 2016.
“Just gotta pitch better if you want to pitch more,” Greinke said.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro said the decision to remove Greinke when they did was the result of a few factors.
“It’s what we had available in the bullpen tonight," he said, "what we thought about how we matched up the rest of the game, as well as being in the middle of a 16-game stretch and trying to manage innings.”
The Royals won their second home game of the season to improve to 2-13 at Kauffman Stadium.
Pasquantino homered into the right-field bullpen to give Kansas City a fourth-inning lead in a game that lasted just 1 hour, 59 minutes. He doubled in another run in the sixth to put the Royals up 2-0.
“He believes in himself,” Quatraro said. “He doesn’t care who’s pitching for the other team. Secondly, he controls the zone. And the third part is amazing: He hits all pitches — fastballs up, fastballs down — which is unusual for somebody to be able to cover as much as he does.”
The Royals knocked Kyle Gibson (4-1) out with four runs in the seventh – all with two out – highlighted by Pasquantino’s second RBI double.
Gibson allowed six runs and 10 hits over 6 2/3 innings, with no walks or strikeouts — the only start of his career in which he had none in either category.
