Philadelphia Phillies at Kansas City Royals

Baseball is a crazy game, because sometimes a team that has largely struggled this season faces a National League Cy Young Award candidate who has a strong chance to start the All-Star Game… and they score nine runs on him before the fourth inning ends. Take your odds, expected stats and predictions, and throw them out the window. Now we can present Monday’s game at Kauffman Stadium. Against one of the best pitchers in baseball this season in Cristopher Sánchez, the Royals scored six in the first inning and forced the Phillies’ ace out of the game after 3 1/3 innings, not letting up in their 15-1 rout to earn a series victory. Monday’s 15 runs were more than the 12 the Royals scored total in the first five games of this homestand, which began with a three-game sweep by the Rays. The Royals’ 22 hits and 15 runs were season highs, and they scored in the first eight innings of a game for just the second time in franchise history (Sept. 14, 1998 vs. the Athletics). “It’s awesome,” second baseman Nick Loftin said with a smile. “Any time we can score and keep scoring, it definitely helps our pitchers out, but it \[also\