Mariners fall 6-4 in opener of big series with Royals

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Brandon Moss did not want to see the numbers next to his name, so he refused to peek.

Moss hit two home runs and Lorenzo Cain drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning as the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners 6-4 on Thursday night.

The Royals rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 for their 32nd comeback victory. They snapped a three-game losing streak.

Moss homered in the fifth off Yovani Gallardo after Mike Moustakas had walked. That snapped a four-game homer-less skid for the Royals, which matched their longest drought of the season.

Moss also homered in eighth off Emilo Pagan for his 11th career multi-homer game. He is hitting .210 with 14 home runs and 28 RBI.

“A few weeks ago, I stopped looking up at the scoreboard every single time I went up there and worrying about what the numbers looked like,” Moss said. “They are what they are. It’s not the end of the season, so you can turn them around, but you’re not going to turn them around stressing about them.”

Moss is hitting .356 with four doubles, five home runs and 12 RBI in his past 12 home games.

“I love hitting at this ballpark and the numbers back that up,” Moss said.

Pagan (0-2) took the loss, giving up two runs, one unearned, in the seventh. Alcides Escobar led off the inning with a single and Alex Gordon moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt.

Whit Merrifield reached on a fielding error by first baseman Danny Valencia. Cain punched a single to right to score Escobar and Cabrera singled home Merrifield.

Ryan Buchter (1-0), the fourth of six Kansas City pitchers, threw one pitch to retire Kyle Seager to end the seventh and picked up the victory.

Kelvin Herrera worked the ninth to log his 24th save in 27 chances. He yielded a run on Robinson Cano’s two-out single.

Seager and Valencia hit solo home runs for the Mariners. Guillermo Heredia’s sixth-inning single scored Valencia, who led off the inning with a double.

“We really needed that big two-out hit earlier in the game to get you over the hump and stretch out the lead a little bit,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “We didn’t get that. We felt the momentum was still on our side, but look up at the scoreboard and it was still 2-0 and they could tie it with one swing of the bat.”

Trevor Cahill, who the Royals picked up in a July 24 deal with the San Diego Padres, allowed two runs and six hits over 4 2/3 innings in a no-decision.

“I actually felt a lot more comfortable than I thought,” Cahill said of his first Kauffman Stadium start as a Royal. “I’ve been pitching for a long time. I felt pretty normal. It seemed like a pretty exciting atmosphere, so it was all fun.”

Mariners starter Yovani Gallardo was removed after five-plus innings.

“I was getting early contact the first five innings except for that pitch to Moss,” Gallardo said. “Just a curveball was up in the zone and he just took advantage of it. I made a mistake up in the zone.”