Dairon Blanco homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs to power the Kansas City Royals to a 13-1 rout of the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night.
Blanco, who wielded a bat painted to look like a yellow crayon, hit a two-run homer deep to center field on the first pitch he saw from Reds starter Nick Lodolo in the second inning.
Then the 31-year-old Cuban cleared the loaded bases with a shot deep into the left-field seats in the third and drove in another run with a single in the fourth. He came into the game with just one homer and five RBIs this season.
Vinnie Pasquantino and Hunter Renfroe each added three hits for the Royals, who finished with 16 and won their third straight.
Michael Wacha benefited from the big offensive night. He limited the Reds to four hits over six scoreless innings with one walk and a season-high nine strikeouts.
Lodolo was roughed up for eight runs and eight hits in 2 1/3 innings.
Jeimer Candelario hit his 20th home run for the Reds, who had a four-game winning streak snapped.
Sale beats Angels for 14th win
Chris Sale struck out 10 over six innings to tie for the major league wins lead and Marcell Ozuna went 3 for 3 with an early three-run homer as the Atlanta Braves rolled to a 11-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
Sale allowed two runs and six hits with two walks to end a four-start winless streak. He leads the National League with 14 wins and tied Detroit’s Tarik Skubal for most in the majors.
Sale improved to 8-0 in 11 appearances against the Angels with a 1.24 ERA – his lowest versus any team he’s faced at least 10 times.
Michael Harris led off the game against Griffin Canning with a double and Austin Riley singled before Ozuna connected for his 36th home run and a 3-0 lead.
Atlanta broke the game open with a five-run fifth and knocked out Canning.
Whit Merrifield opened the inning with a homer and Travis d’Arnaud had a two-run double before Ramon Laureano’s two-run shot made it 9-0.
Severino goes distance for Mets
Luis Severino pitched his first complete game in over six years and was backed by home runs from Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso as the New York Mets defeated the last-place Miami Marlins, 4-0.
Severino allowed four hits with one walk and struck out eight to end a personal three-game losing streak. He threw a season-high 113 pitches and recorded his second career complete game and first since May 2, 2018, at Houston for the Yankees.
The shutout was the first by a Mets starter since Jacob deGrom blanked Washington on April 23, 2021.
Lindor led off the bottom of the first against Max Meyer with his 24th home run and Alonso did the same in the second, his 27th.
New York extended its lead in the third on Jesse Winker’s RBI single and Mark Vientos doubled home Lindor in the fourth.
The Mets scored once in each of the first four innings for the first time since May 26, 1995, against San Francisco.