by Gabriel Lopez, Monarchs
An impressive two-home run night on Friday for Jan Hernandez put him first in two categories in the American Association.
Hernandez now leads the league in home runs with 13. His five-RBI night also put him first in RBIs with 36.
Hernandez’s performance helped the Kansas City Monarchs (21-10) take the series opener against the Milwaukee Milkmen (17-14) in an 8-5 victory Friday night at Legends Field.
The Milkmen broke the tie in the second inning as Logan Trowbridge hit an RBI single to right field. Magglio Ordonez Jr. followed this with an RBI single of his own to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead.
Kansas City had a productive fourth inning. Gaby Guerrero and Matt Adams hit back-to-back singles to start the inning. After David Thompson was hit by a pitch, Jan Hernandez belted a grand slam to right field to give the Monarchs the lead. A sacrifice fly from Pete Kozma extended Kansas City’s lead 5-2.
Milwaukee chipped away in the sixth as Chad Sedio and Mason Davis both delivered RBI singles to bring the Milkmen within one.
The Monarchs continued to score in the next three innings. Hernandez stepped up and roped his second home run of the day with a bomb to center field.
In the seventh, Guerrero hit an RBI single to score Willie Abreu. In the eighth, Kozma lined an RBI triple into the right-center gap to score Casey Gillaspie. After eight innings, the Monarchs led 8-4.
Dylan Kelley hit a two-out home run for the Milkmen to make the score 8-5. Jameson McGrane brushed this aside and struck out Aaron Hill to end the game.
The Monarchs will face the Milkmen at Legends Field in game two at 6 p.m. Saturday at Legends Field. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 5:30 p.m. and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.
Tickets to Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.