By MATT PIKE
One night after knocking in a walk off run on a squeeze bunt, Nick Loftin hit a tiebreaking RBI single and Luinder Avila struck out a career-high seven as the Kansas City Royals beat the San Francisco Giants 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium.
Avila, improving to 5-3 on the season with the win, allowed five hits and two runs in 6.1 innings. It was the longest outing in 10 career starts. Matt Strahm, John Schreiber and Alex Lange worked hitless innings of relief, with Lange striking out two in the ninth inning and earning his ninth save.
Carter Jensen opened the scoring in the bottom of the third inning with a solo home run, his 14th home run of the season and the fifth straight game that the Royals have homered. In the fifth inning the Giants took the lead after Jesus Rodriguez doubled with two outs and scored on a single by Drew Gilbert. Gilbert advanced on a single by Christian Koss and scored when Royals shortstop Tyler Tolbert bobbled a grounder off the bat of Heliot Ramos.
In the sixth inning Isaac Collins walked leading off and advanced when Sam Hentges hit Salvador Perez with a pitch. Vinnie Pasquantino extended his hitting streak to 16 games with an RBI single, scoring Collins, to center that tied the game before Loftin put the Royals ahead to stay with a bases-loaded single driving in Perez.
Pasquantino went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk while Loftin went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Jensen was 1-for-4 with the home run and an RBI on the night, helping the Royals seal another series win.
Kansas City and San Francisco wrap up the series tomorrow. Seth Lugo (3-6, 4.39 ERA, 89K's) takes the mound for the Royals in the finale against Landen Roupp (7-8, 3.98 ERA, 106K's) for the Giants. First pitch will be joined at 1:10pm on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.