Dairon Blanco goes Thanos on the Reds, Royals win 13-1

The pinch-running specialist ended the night with three hits and seven RBIs.

Here’s something you may not have realized before tonight. Dairon Blanco, who got his first start of the road trip in left field thanks to the left-handed Nick Lodolo starting for the Reds, wears the number 44. This is significant because that’s the same number the Reds’ superstar shortstop, Elly De La Cruz wears. And, for tonight, at least. Blanco looked like a right-handed, outfield playing De La Cruz. But we’ll come back to that in a moment.

The Royals made it clear early that Lodolo was not going to be able to do much to stop them. The broadcast talked multiple times early about how Lodolo and Royals starter Michael Wacha have been on opposite trajectories this season. After a slow start, Wacha has been lights out for months. After a hot start, Lodolo has not been particularly good for months. But I don’t think anything could have prepared Cincinnati for what was to come.

Maikel Garcia got leadoff duties again tonight and lined a single to right. Bobby Witt Jr. then immediately smashed a double to right-center to put runners at second and third with no outs. Vinnie Pasquantino popped up the first pitch he saw. But Salvador Perez came through with his 81st RBI on a sacrifice fly to give the Royals an early 1-0 lead.

Michael Wacha gave up a lead-off single to Jonathan India, erased him on a line drive double play to Hunter Renfroe in right when India inexplicably took off for second, and then struck out Tyler Stephenson.

In the top of the second, the Royals immediately to work again. Freddy Fermin doubled. Garrett Hampson flew out to right and Paul DeJong struck out on three pitches, looking completely overmatched by Lodolo’s fastball. For a moment it seemed that after scoring only one run in the first, the Royals would squander another scoring opportunity. But it was Dairon Blanco’s first at-bat. And, wielding a yellow crayon bat, he picked up his teammates.

That was just Blanco’s fifth big league home run, but it gave the Royals some cushion heading into the bottom of the inning.

Wacha got two strikeouts and a flyball to quickly escape the second.

Then the whole game ended.

Vinnie Pasquantino singled. Salvy singled. Hunter Renfroe, down in the count 0-2 and lugging a 26-at-bat streak without reaching base, worked a walk. Freddy Fermin walked with the bases loaded to drive in the Royals’ fourth run. Hampson flew out, but Lodolo chose to start Paul DeJong with a hanging curve and DeJong singled to drive in another run. With Blanco coming back to the plate Reds manager David Bell had seen enough from Lodolo and went to his bullpen, asking Buck Farmer to come in and keep things from getting completely out of hand. Farmer decided to start Blanco off with a changeup down the middle. Blanco and his crayon did not miss.

That wasn’t the end of the scoring in the inning, either. Maikel Garcia struck out but Bobby Baseball took a walk and Vinnie Pasquantino doubled for his second hit of the inning, scoring Bobby and giving the Royals a ten-run lead.

That marked the fifth time the Royals have scored seven runs in an inning. The other four times were all back in April. The Royals on this three-game winning streak have looked a lot like the team that got off to such an incredibly hot start to begin the year. It’s a lot of fun when they play like that.

Anyway, the Royals scored three more runs. They got two in the fourth off a Blanco single - his third hit and seventh RBI of the night - plus a Maikel Garcia sacrifice fly. Pasquantino led off the fifth inning with a single - the fifth time in five innings the Royals got their lead-off hitter on - Salvy lined out, Renfroe snapped his hitless streak with a single, Fermin hit a grounder to De La Cruz that should have been an inning-ending double play but he let it eat him up. Fortunately for him, Hampson hit a flyout and DeJong hit him another groundball to end the threat. Only De La Cruz booted that one, too, and the Royals scored their final run of the night.

At that point both teams started substituting out their stars and bringing in their more flammable pitchers. The Reds even asked their backup catcher to pitch the ninth. He gave up only an infield hit to Hunter Renfroe, who finished the night with three hits.

As for the lineup, every Royals starter had at least one hit and reached at least twice except Hampson, who settled for the lone single. Every Royals starter scored at least one run. Everyone but Hampson, Witt, and Renfroe drove in at least one. The recently ice-cold Hunter Renfroe and Vinnie Pasquantino each had three hits tonight. Or, at least, they did until Renfroe’s last hit was changed to a throwing error. Still, two hits ain’t bad.

Let’s talk about the pitching, though, because Wacha only went six innings but, much like Lugo earlier, chose to respond to criticisms about how he was succeeding without striking guys out by striking out a lot of guys. He finished the night allowing four hits, one walk, and striking out nine in a fantastic outing. He probably could have pitched the seventh but with the massive lead and so many untrustworthy relievers to give time to, there was no reason to do so.

Angel Zerpa pitched the seventh and gave up the only Reds run on the night, a Jeimer Candelario home run to left. He generally continued to look hittable and I really wouldn’t mind if the Royals went ahead and demoted him to give someone else a shot. Chris Stratton got the eighth and struck out one and allowed a hit. Carlos Hernández got the ninth inning for the second night in a row. He only struck out one this time, but this time used more breaking stuff and still looked pretty good in a 1-2-3 inning.

The Royals have guaranteed a .500 road trip. If they can win tomorrow’s game, they will have their second straight winning road trip and go home with a season road record over .500.

The Guardians lost again, but the Twins and Red Sox are each winning as I write this. Once again, the Royals get closer to the division crown without making up any distance on their closest Wild Card rivals. Still, their magic number falls to 38 with 39 games left to play. Some of you are certainly frustrated that the Red Sox and Twins refuse to lose, but I promise you their fan bases are equally upset that the Royals won’t get lost.

The final game of the series and road trip will be tomorrow at 12:40 Central. Brady Singer will take the mound for the Royals, looking to bounce back from his poor outing against the Twins. The Reds will send the left-handed Andrew Abbott to the mound.

Maybe Dairon Blanco can single-handedly beat him, too.