Royals Jump Early, Hold On as Palms’ Late Rally Falls Short

 Kansas City Royals 4, Miami Palms 3

Tuesday, June 2, 2020
By Vin Castillo

MIAMI — The Palms finally found their bats Tuesday night, but by the time they did, the damage had already been done.

Kansas City struck for four runs in the opening inning against Dylan Bundy and made it stand up, holding off a seventh-inning Miami rally to escape Coca-Cola Palms Park with a 4–3 win.

The first inning proved decisive. Whit Merrifield opened the scoring with a leadoff homer, and two batters later Adalberto Mondesi delivered the knockout blow — a two-run triple into the right-center gap — capping a four-run frame that put the Palms in an immediate hole.

Bundy settled in after that, retiring 11 of the next 13 hitters he faced, but the early deficit loomed large. He finished with six innings, seven strikeouts, and a line that didn’t reflect how sharp he looked once he found his rhythm.

The Palms were quiet for much of the night against Royals starter Brady Singer, who mixed his pitches effectively and stranded traffic in the middle innings. Miami put runners on from the third through sixth frames but couldn’t crack the scoreboard.

That changed in the seventh.

Down 4–0,  Yairo Muñoz finally broke the shutout with a clean RBI single, and moments later Matt Koch brought the crowd to life with a sharp two-run single into center, trimming the deficit to one.

“Once we got one, it felt like the whole dugout woke up,” Koch said. “We just ran out of outs.”

Kansas City’s bullpen slammed the door from there. Ian Kennedy worked a clean eighth, and Scott Barlow navigated around two hits in the ninth to earn the save, stranding the tying run in scoring position.

Miami out-hit the Royals 9–8 and got three more hits from Emilio Miranda, but couldn’t overcome the first-inning punch.

The Palms will look to rebound in the series finale Wednesday, with an opportunity to take two of three before the schedule tightens again.

“We liked the fight,” manager Scott Hatteberg said. “But we’ve got to be ready from pitch one. In this league, you can’t spot teams four runs and expect it to be easy.”

For one night, it wasn’t.

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