Royals bullpen holds strong in win over Cardinals

Maikel Garcia hit a two-run homer and scored three times to lead the visiting Kansas City Royals past the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5 Thursday in the second half of a split doubleheader.

The Cardinals rallied to win the first game 6-5 in 10 innings.

Salvador Perez drove in two runs for the Royals in Game 2 and Freddy Fermin hit a solo homer.

Royals starting pitcher Cole Ragans allowed five runs on five hits and three walks in three innings. He struck out four.

Angel Zerpa (3-0) threw three scoreless innings, Steven Cruz blanked the Cardinals for two innings and Carlos Estevez closed out the game for his 18th save.

Willson Contreras went 2-for-4 with a run and three RBIs and Nolan Arenado hit a two-run homer for the Cardinals.

St. Louis starting pitcher Matthew Liberatore (3-5) allowed seven runs on eight hits in four innings.

Kansas City took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Bobby Witt Jr. hit a single and Garcia launched his homer.

The Cardinals cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the inning on a walk by Lars Nootbaar, then singles from Masyn Winn and Contreras.

The Royals increased their lead to 5-1 in the third inning. Fermin's homer started the rally and a single by Jonathan India, a double by Garcia, Vinny Pasquantino's run-scoring groundout and Perez's RBI single completed it.

But the Cardinals tied the game 5-5 in the bottom of the inning. Winn walked, Brendan Donovan hit a single, Contreras hit a two-run double, and Arenado hit his two-run homer.

Kansas City retook the lead 6-5 in the fourth inning with doubles by Mark Canha and Nick Loftin.

The Royals made it 7-5 in the fifth when Garcia walked, stole second, took third on a groundout and scored on Perez's single.

--Field Level Media