Sports – Thursday, June 15th, 2017

After two long rain delays, the St. Louis Cardinals finally lost to the Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday night, 7-6. Aledmys Diaz homered in the 8th inning for the Cardinal to make it close. Mike Leake gave up six runs in the first two innings, then settled in and worked six innings. He took the loss and is 5-6 on the year. The Cards and Brewers play again today at 5:20 on KSMO Radio.

Whit Merrifield hit a bases-clearing triple in a six-run sixth inning and left-hander Jason Vargas became the American League’s second nine-game winner Tuesday night, leading the Kansas City Royals to an 8-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants in the opener of a two-game interleague series. Merrifield and Jorge Bonifacio drove in three runs apiece in a 15-hit attack for the Royals. Vargas (9-3) coasted from there, completing seven innings during which he allowed five hits and one run. He walked one and struck out six in his 102-pitch effort.

The Kansas City Royals continued their hot hitting on their West Coast trip, banging out 16 more hits in a 7-2 win to complete a sweep of the struggling San Francisco Giants on Wednesday afternoon. Mike Moustakas, Jorge Bonifacio and Lorenzo Cain each belted a home run to back the strong pitching of right-hander Jason Hammel who scattered eight hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out four, pitching Kansas City to its fourth straight win. The Royals start a four game series in Anaheim tonight against the Angels.