Kansas City, Missouri –
Sean Murphy hit a homer on three hits and had four runs scored, while Ozzy Albies also had four RBIs as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Kansas City Royals, 9-3, on Saturday night.
Murphy hit an RBI double in the 1st and 3rd innings, a solo home run in the 5th, and a bases-loaded walk in the 8th. Homer went 395 feet over the left field fence for the third game of the season and the second in a row. In his first two games of this series, he went 5-for-7 with his two home runs and his seven RBIs.
“It’s always nice to get hit, but just do it early and show the rest of the guys that you’re in the company,” Murphy said. “It’s going well now, but I’m just trying to be consistent. I’ve just been trying to do my thing and not worry too much about any external pressure.”
Albies hit a two-run double in the third to extend his four-run lead early in the game. In the eighth inning he singled with two more runs to put the game out of reach.
Bryce Elder (2-0) got off to a promising start to the year with 3 runs and 7 hits, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.
“He picked up where he left off last year,” said Braves manager Brian Snicker. “He’s very aggressive and everyone has to love playing behind him. He works fast. …he did a little run there.”
After losing 5-1 in the fifth inning, Kansas City returned to the game with RBIs by Kyle Isbell and Jackie Bradley Jr. to draw within two.
The Royals hit an RBI double off of Salvador Perez in the first inning.
Chris Bubik (0 wins, 2 losses) hit his first home run in 28 innings, allowed 5 earned runs with 10 hits, and allowed 1 walk with 3 strikeouts in 5 innings.
“I wasn’t very sharp today. It was definitely cold and something like that, but today when I gave up hard contact with the lead in the count, I felt like I couldn’t run the pitch,” Bubik said. “I didn’t really have the desire to finish off my opponent with any pitch, but I wanted to keep fighting to take my chances.”
The Royals are the worst in the league this season with 1-8 at home. On the contrary, the Braves are his 7-1 record, best in the league.
“We’ve played against good teams, but with that said, we need to do better and compete against those kinds of teams,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro.
delay due to rain
The game was delayed two and a half hours before the first pitch was thrown due to rain delays.
next
The Braves sent RHP Kyle Wright (0-0, 12.00 ERA) to the mound to face Royals RHP Zach Greinke (0-3, 3.31).
——
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP–Sports
22:15 ET 15-04-23
