Siri homers twice and Rays beat Royals 6-1 in doubleheader opener

Jul 15, 2023, 10:53 pm

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- — Jose Siri hit a pair of solo homers and the Tampa Bay Rays opened the second half by beating the Kansas City Royals 6-1 on Saturday in a doubleheader opener.

A day after the series opener was rained out, Tyler Glasnow (3-3) gave up six hits and struck out six as the AL East-leading Rays won their second straight after a season-high 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 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. It felt good to connect on those two," Siri said.

Cole Ragans (2-3) was to start the second game for the Royals and Shawn Armstrong (0-0) for the Rays.

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 think mindset wise I knew to keep attacking and knowing I needed to make a pitch with two strikes.”

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.

UP NEXT

RHP Zach Eflin (10-4, 3.25) starts Sunday's series finale for the Rays and RHP Bailey Singer (5-8, 5.80) for the Royals.

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