After falling in extra innings against the RailCats on Tuesday night, the Monarchs bounced back with a 6-3 victory over Gary SouthShore on Wednesday night in Indiana.
Darnell Sweeney and Ryan Grotjohn tallied multi-hit games, and Jake Matthys picked up a quality start.
The start wasn’t ideal for Matthys, who was making his first start for the Monarchs this season. The RailCats tagged the right-hander for a run in the bottom of the first on a triple and an error, giving Gary an early 1-0 lead. An inning later, the RailCats notched a pair of runs on RBI-singles to make it 3-0.
Kansas City, however, rallied quickly. In the top of the third, the Monarchs tacked on a run thanks to an RBI-groundout from Jan Herrnandez.
In the ensuing inning, Kansas City battled back to take its first lead of the game. Newly acquired Alexis Olmeda singled to center to drive in Casey Gillaspie, and Ryan Grotjohn drove in two on a double to left field. It almost turned into three runs, but Sweeney was thrown out at the plate.
Back on the mound, Matthys settled into a groove. Following his shaky start, the right-hander proceeded to throw four consecutive scoreless innings. Matthys’ night was finished after six innings. He allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits with four strikeouts.
In the top of the seventh, the Monarchs were rewarded with an insurance run on an error by Gary. In the bottom half, Jameson McGrane came on in relief and dominated with two clean innings — allowing just one hit and recording three strikeouts.
Kansas City added one more insurance run in the ninth on a sacrifice fly from Hernandez. With a 6-3 lead, Carlos Diaz entered in the bottom of the inning and tallied his third save of the season.
The Monarchs will finish their three-game series with Gary Thursday and head home for a nine-game homestand that begins on Friday. First pitch on Thursday is slated for 7:10 p.m. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:45 p.m. and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.
On Friday, comedian Rob Riggle will be the special guest at the Kansas City Monarchs game, with pre-game at 5 p.m. followed by the game at 7 p.m.
Tickets to Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.
- Story from Dan Vaughan, Kansas City Monarchs