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Royals batter Brewers once again

Jun 18, 2015 - 5:08 AM Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Alcides Escobar drove in four runs as the Kansas City Royals continued to pound Milwaukee pitching in Wednesday's 10-2 rout of the Brewers.

The Royals have now put up 25 runs in taking the first three meetings of this four-game, home-and-home set. Lorenzo Cain, Kendrys Morales and Omar Infante all had two hits and an RBI, and Escobar also collected two hits to help give Ned Yost his 410th win as Kansas City's skipper, tying Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog for the most in franchise history.

Kansas City reached the milestone by battering Mike Fiers (3-7) for six runs and eight hits through five innings.

The Royals also received a successful return to a major league rotation from Joe Blanton (1-0), who yielded just one run and five hits with no walks over five innings in the veteran's first big league start in nearly two years.

The win was Blanton's first in the majors since June 29, 2013.

"It felt good to be back," said Blanton, who spent nearly all of last season out of baseball. "For me it was mentally, getting away and getting a breather. It may not really what you want to do, take a year off, but it seemed to be a good thing for me."

Shane Peterson went 3-for-3 with a run scored in the loss, the lowly Brewers' fifth in a row. Carlos Gomez collected two hits and scored once in his return to the Milwaukee lineup.

After Milwaukee grabbed an early 1-0 edge when Gomez doubled in the second inning and was easily sent home on Scooter Gennett's triple to deep center field, the Royals answered with three runs in their half of the frame and tacked on against Fiers later on.

Kansas City quickly loaded the bases with none out in the second on singles by Eric Hosmer and Morales and a walk to Alex Gordon. Fiers was able to get Salvador Perez to foul out, but Alex Rios drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly and Morales scored on Infante's infield hit that followed Fiers' wild pitch. Escobar then drilled a base hit to right center that plated Gordon for a 3-1 advantage.

Blanton, filling a rotation spot opened by Jason Vargas' trip to the disabled list with an elbow strain, kept the Royals in front with solid work over the rest of his stint. The right-hander held Milwaukee to three singles from the third to fifth innings and retired eight of the final 10 batters he faced.

Cain's one-out triple that knocked in Mike Moustakas highlighted another three-run outburst for Kansas City in the fifth. Morales delivered an RBI single two batters later and Gordon drove home Hosmer with a sac fly that extended the margin to 6-1.

"I had a lot of these guys with two strikes and then they were able to get on," said Fiers. "I just need to be able to find a way to finish them off. But you've got to give them credit, too, putting good swings on the ball with two strikes."

Peterson tripled off Franklin Morales in the eighth and crossed the plate on Gerardo Parra's groundout before the Royals struck four more times in the bottom of the inning.

Escobar cleared the bases with a triple into the gap in right center that increased the lead to 9-2, then scored the final run on Moustakas' grounder.

Game Notes

Blanton's last major league start came with the Angels against Minnesota on July 22, 2013 ... Gomez had sat out five of Milwaukee's seven previous contests with a hip injury ... Brewers starting pitchers have posted an 8.78 ERA over the course of the team's five-game skid ... Cain and Gordon both extended their hitting streaks to eight games ... With the game drawing a crowd of over 33,000, the Royals surpassed the 1 million mark in home attendance faster than any time in their 47-year existence.