Siri-ously good start to second half
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jose Siri hit a pair of solo homers and the Tampa Bay Rays opened the season’s second half by beating the Kansas City Royals 6-1 on Saturday in the opener of a doubleheader.
A day after the series’ start was rained out, Tyler Glasnow (3-3) gave up six hits and struck out six as the American League East-leading Rays won their second straight after a seasonhigh seven-game losing streak.
Glasnow had been 0-3 in four starts since a June 14 win at Oakland.
“I felt good all game,” Glasnow said. “I kind of felt off to start, but as the innings went on I got a rhythm. It was a battle today and ended up being a good game.”
Kansas City has lost seven of their last eight, dropping to 26-66.
Salvador Perez had four hits for the Royals, one shy of his career high. His fifth-inning double made him the sixth Kansas City player with 500 extra-base hits.
Siri homered in the third off Alec Marsh (0-3) and the ninth off Nick Wittgren for his seventh career multihomer game. Siri has 18 home runs this season.
“I know I’ve been striking out a lot, but everyone knows that,” Siri said. It felt good to connect on those two.”
Francisco Mejía gave the Rays a 2-0 lead in the fifth when he homered off Marsh, who allowed two runs and five hits in
six innings with 11 strikeouts and one walk. The strikeouts were a high for a Royals pitcher in his first three big-league starts.
“Getting strikeouts the last two games were difficult for me,” Marsh said. “I thought the attack mode was good all game . ... I knew to keep attacking.”
Kansas City’s Collin Snider opened the eighth with 13 consecutive balls. Luke Raley followed with a two-run single and Josh Lowe hit a sacrifice fly. Bobby Witt Jr. hit a 424-foot homer in the fifth.