Royals come within six outs of perfect play in victory over Cardinals

Josh Staumont and Mike Mayers came within six outs of the first combined perfect game in major league history before Nolan Arenado lined out with a leadoff single in the eighth inning of the Kansas City Royals’ 7–0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday.

“You’re certainly aware of it,” Mayers said of a perfect game. “I tried to keep it business as usual. The goal was to throw as many zeroes as possible and that’s the mindset I stayed in.”

Staumont, a 29-year-old right-hander, served as the opener in a scheduled bullpen game for the Royals. He made his first major league start in his 167th appearance and struckout two batters in a 1-2-3 inning, throwing 14 pitches.

“That was one of the most exciting moments of the year for me,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro. “It was unbelievable that he set the tone like that.”

Mayers, a 31-year-old southpaw who pitched for the 2016-19 Cardinals, made his third appearance for the Royals this season after eight starts at Triple-A Omaha. He struck out 18 consecutive batters before Arenado hit a 1-0 slider left on his 72nd pitch.

“He did a great job today,” said Arenado. “We just didn’t get anything going.”

Willson Contreras followed with a single to center that stopped an 0 for 29 slide.

“I can’t say what I was thinking there,” Mayers said with a chuckle. “I made two really bad pitches in that inning and they’re good hitters. They made me pay for it.”

Taylor Clarke relieved Brendan Donovan, Paul DeJong and Alex Burleson and retired in order. Amir Garrett threw a perfect ninth to complete a two-hitter and Kansas City’s second shutout this year.

St. Louis was eliminated for the sixth time, scoring 13 points in their last six games.

“It was just hard to get anything going offensively,” said St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol. “Today was a tough day.”

There have been 23 perfect games, the last by Seattle’s Félix Hernández against Tampa Bay on August 15, 2012. All perfect games are complete games started and ended by one pitcher.

The Royals are still chasing their first perfect game in franchise history. There has never been a perfect game thrown against the Cardinals either.

Kansas City had not eliminated the Cardinals since May 22, 2015, and had not eliminated them in St. Louis since June 2, 2014.

In the opener of a two-game series, the Royals tied with 16 hits and stranded 14 runners, one shy of their peak.

Nicky Lopez tied his career high with four hits, and Nick Pratto and Vinnie Pasquantino each had three. Mike Massey hit a two-run homer and Bobby Witt Jr. added a solo homer.

Adam Wainwright (2-1) gave up three runs and nine hits in five innings for the Cardinals, playing their 18th game in 19 straight days. The Cardinals and the Royals have back-to-back days off on Wednesday and Thursday.

“The stuff is okay. The location is fine,’ Wainwright said. “Nothing great. We’re in one of those funks right now. Baseball is such a crazy game. I’m trying to see the big picture. The little moments, I’m not winning now.”

Pasquantino hit an RBI double in the third.

“I feel solid and ready to go tomorrow,” said Pasquantino. “It was a bit of a weird game because it was harder to score runs early and we were able to break the opener later.”

MJ Melendez hit a runscoring triple in the fifth and scored on Freddy Fermin’s bunt down the first baseline for a 3-0 lead.

Pasquantino had an RBI single off Steven Matz, who turned 32 on Monday, in the eighth, and Witt and Massey homered in the ninth against Drew VerHagen.

Witt broke an 0-for-12 slip with the home run. He became the second Royal to hit 30 home runs before turning 23.

FOX Sports Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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