Royals Spoil Phillies' Home Opener
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Alex Gordon and Chris Getz each hit bases-loaded triples and the Kansas City Royals rallied to beat Philadelphia 13-4 Friday, spoiling the Phillies' home opener.
The interleague matchup was a rare one between teams that first met in the 1980 World Series — the Royals' only other visit to Philadelphia came in 2004.
After getting a total of 17 hits in their first three games against the Chicago White Sox, the Royals had 19 against the Phillies. Eric Hosmer was 4 for 5 with three RBIs, and the Royals overcame a 4-0 deficit to surge past Kyle Kendrick and the Phillies
Domonic Brown and Erik Kratz hit solo homers for the Phillies, who are off to a 1-3 start.
Bruce Chen (1-0) struck out two in a perfect fifth in relief of Wade Davis to earn the win. Davis allowed four runs and nine hits in four innings in his first start for Kansas City.
Four Royals relievers combined to toss five hitless innings.
Kendrick (0-1) gave up five runs and eight hits in 5 2-3 innings. He cruised through the first four innings, giving up only two hits.
Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and George Brett, rivals when the Phillies beat the Royals to win their first world championship 33 years ago, threw out the first pitches.
Schmidt was MVP of the '80 Series. He capped it off by leaping on pitcher Tug McGraw after the lefty threw strike three past Willie Wilson to clinch Game 6 and set off a wild celebration at old Veteran Stadium.
Looking to return to the postseason after their streak of five straight NL East titles ended last year when they finished 81-81, the Phillies will need better pitching. Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay were roughed up by Atlanta in the first two games, and Kendrick unraveled after four strong innings.
Hosmer hit a two-run single with two outs in the fifth to cut the deficit to 4-2.
The Royals also rallied with two outs in the sixth. Getz hit a double to put runners at second and third. Pinch-hitter Billy Butler was intentionally walked to load the bases. Jeremy Horst replaced Kendrick and Gordon greeted him with a bases-clearing triple to right-center that put the Royals ahead 5-4.
Getz hit his bases-clearing triple off Chad Durbin in the seventh. Brown helped him out with an ill-advised diving attempt on the liner to left. The ball fell in and rolled all the way to the warning track.
Alcides Escobar hit a solo homer off Raul Valdes to make it 10-4 in the eighth.
A sellout crowd of 45,307 at Citizens Bank Park hoped to enjoy a victory on a comfortable 64-degree late afternoon. The pregame festivities included a mini-parade that led players into the ballpark from the street behind the stands in left-center field.
With their furry green mascot, the Phillie Phanatic, first in line, the players and coaches walked in, mingled with the crowd and high-fived adoring fans lined up along the red carpet in the outfield.
Then the hitters gave them something to cheer at the start.
Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard lined consecutive one-out singles in the first for a 1-0 lead.
Brown hit a towering drive out to right in the second. One out later, Kratz lined one out to left for a 3-0 lead. Kendrick followed with a liner off the wall in left, barely missing his first career homer by about two feet.
Kendrick slowly jogged to first, admiring his blast and held up for a long single much to the amusement of Howard and his fellow starting pitchers who pointed and laughed from the dugout.
Utley doubled to left-center in the third, stole third and scored on Howard's line-drive single to right.
Davis, acquired from Tampa Bay along with James Shields, made his first start since 2011. He made 54 relief appearances for the Rays last year after 58 starts in 2010-11.
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