Escobar double lifts Royals over Cards
ST. LOUIS -- Alcides Escobar's one-out RBI double in the top of the 12th inning Wednesday night lifted the Kansas City Royals to a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Whit Merrifield started the rally with a double off Seth Maness (0-2), St. Louis' eighth pitcher of the game, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Escobar lined a 3-1 pitch down the right field line just in front of a diving Stephen Piscotty as Merrifield scored.
Chien-Ming Wang (5-0) pitched the last two innings for the win as Kansas City (41-36) won despite stranding 19 runners. The Cardinals (40-37) dropped to 15-22 at Busch Stadium, where they have lost six in a row.
Kansas City grabbed a short-lived lead in its half of the 10th when second baseman Matt Carpenter booted a potential double play ball off Merrifield's bat, enabling Cheslor Cuthbert to score. Cuthbert led off with a walk and reached third when reliever Seung Hwan Oh threw errantly on a pickoff attempt.
But Piscotty knotted the score with a 427-foot homer to center on a 2-0 pitch from Joakim Soria, his ninth of the year.
One out away from a 1-0 loss, St. Louis instead forced extra innings when Jhonny Peralta reached closer Wade Davis for an RBI single to left, scoring Greg Garcia from second.
Kansas City snapped a 0-0 tie in the eighth when Escobar lined a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to right to plate Christian Colon. The run snapped Jonathan Broxton's string of 12 consecutive scoreless outings.
Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez pitched six scoreless innings, scattering eight hits with a walk and three strikeouts as he lowered his earned run average over his last six starts to 1.06.
Royals starter Edinson Volquez worked 6 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up six hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Both teams failed to capitalize on early scoring chances.
Kansas City sprayed seven hits off Carlos Martinez through five innings, but stranded eight men. The St. Louis right-hander struck out Edinson Volquez in the second and forced him to ground out in the fourth, then induced a first-pitch bouncer to second from Salvador Perez to leave men at second and third in the fifth.
Volquez, who was pounded by Houston for 12 runs in one-plus inning in his last start Friday night, permitted five hits but no runs through five frames Wednesday. The Cardinals got men to the corners with two outs in the fourth, but Greg Garcia flied out to left on a full-count pitch.
NOTES: Kansas City placed CF Lorenzo Cain (left hamstring strain) on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday and recalled OF Brett Eibner from Triple-A Omaha. Cain was injured Tuesday night while trying to beat out a grounder in the seventh inning. ... St. Louis SS Aledmys Diaz (eye) took grounders before Wednesday night's game but was not in the starting lineup for the second consecutive game. He fouled a pitch off his eye in Monday night's ninth inning. ... Royals 1B/DH Kendrys Morales got the start in right field Wednesday. It was his first start in the outfield since 2008, when he logged 60 innings over 12 games in right as a member of the Los Angeles Angels.