by Jaxson Webb, Monarchs
The Kansas City Monarchs (5-3) had the luck of the Irish on Saturday evening as those at the ballpark celebrated Irish Daze. The Monarchs pitching was staggering, and the offense struck gold, defeating the Dogs 11-2
In back-to-back nights the Monarchs have surrendered the lead in the early innings but have stayed resilient.
The Dogs were able to force Monarchs starter Lewis Thorpe (1-1) into pitching 24 pitches in the opening inning and scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly from Grant Kay (1-0).
The shuffled and strong lineup for Kansas City responded right away after Willie Abreu’s leadoff double, and a pair of fielder’s choices. Jan Hernandez also drove in a run with a single through the left side (3-1).
Lewis Thorpe came back in the second inning with a completely different demeanor. The Melbourne, Australia, native went on to retire nine batters in a row, six of them strikeouts.
Thorpe was dialed in and stayed on top of the Dogs lineup. He finished the evening with five innings pitched, two hits, one earned run, two bases on balls and nine strikeouts.
That momentum carried over to the offensive side of things as six different Monarchs recorded a multi-hit game. Atop of that list was center fielder Willie Abreu, who went 3-for-4 with three RBI, and was just a triple shy of the cycle.
The fourth inning was the four-leaf clover inning for the Monarchs, scoring six runs on eight hits. David Thompson recorded two hits in the inning as Kansas City sent 11 batters to the plate.
Abreu capped off the night with a towering two-run homer to stretch the lead to 11-1 in the home half of the eighth. The Dogs scratched out one run in the ninth as Kansas City closed the “green” night out with an 11-2 win.
The Monarchs will play game three against Chicago at 3 p.m. Sunday. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network and a video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.
Tickets to Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.