In what started as a pitchers’ duel lacking in an abundance of things that make such games interesting like tons of strikeouts or sterling defensive plays, the Royals and Blue Jays waited until the seventh inning to make things interesting. From the Royals’ vantage point, “interesting” lasted for about ten minutes.
Before the seventh, the Blue Jays took advantage of Royals’ starter Edinson Volquez walking the first two batters he faced on a total of ten pitches. Edwin Encarnacion ripped a grounder to third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert, but the scorcher came out of his mitt, and a might-have-been double play ended up being a fielder’s choice at second, moving lead-off batter Ezequiel Carrera to third.