Morning Marquee: Chicago Cubs fall on late rally by Royals

It looked as if the Chicago Cubs had the opportunity to take this game into extra innings, or win the ballgame during in the ninth inning until Pedro Strop and outfielder Dexter Fowler fell apart late.

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The defending American League champion Kansas City Royals began their Wrigley Field visit today and hammered away at Chicago’s pitching staff, mainly ace starter, Jake Arrieta. Arrieta gave up the lead right off the bat on a first-pitch home run to Alcides Escobar then followed that up with a solo bomb given up to Alex Gordon just an inning later.

Chicago was finally able to get on the board after somewhat solving Edinson Volquez in the third inning. Kris Bryant drove in Addison Russell on an RBI double to left-center, cutting Kansas City’s lead down to just one run.

Arrieta’s troubles would carry over into the top half of the fourth on a 1-2 pitch that found itself landing into the left field bleachers courtesy of Salvador Perez. Jorge Soler brought his team within a run on a two-run shot off Volquez in the sixth inning, forcing skipper Ned Yost to pull his starter from the game, turning to his ever dangerous bullpen.

Russell later forced Kelvin Herrera to give up his first home run of the season on a game-tying moonshot in the seventh. From there on out, the Royals would take advantage of Pedro Strop, Justin Grimm, Edwin Jackson and Fowler’s late error to make it 8-4 the final.

Both teams will continue their weekend series on FOX later on this evening.

While the Cubs and Royals were the only day games, the rest of the evening showcased some great ball games mainly in Texas with the Rangers hosting the Boston Red Sox.

Outfielder Josh Hamilton made his return to the Rangers just the other day and recorded a double to make things official. Today against Boston, Hamilton had himself a multi-home run game – the first coming in the second inning to give his team the 1-0 advantage then hammered his second to almost the exact same spot two innings later to break a 4-4 tie.

Texas would add two more runs, defeating Jon Lester‘s former team, 7-4 at home.

Despite the St. Louis Cardinals losing another key player in Matt Adams, they were able to shut out the N.L. West powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers 3-0 yesterday evening.

Veteran right-hander Jon Lackey picked up his third victory of the season behind seven scoreless innings, holding the Dodgers to just five hits. He received run support on RBI doubles by Jhonny Peralta and Randal Grichuk, who was also credited with an RBI on a double play in the home half of the first.

The Cardinals improved to 32-16 on the season, extending their first-place lead over the Chicago Cubs to 6 1/2 games in the National League Central. Chicago has a tough June schedule ahead of them, so if they have any hopes of closing the gap before hitting the All-Star break, they’ll need to turn things around as soon as possible.

Here’s more from around the league:

‘Red Sox Recap: Rangers top Red Sox, 7-4‘ – Bosox Injection

‘The St. Louis Cardinals will stand tall‘ – Redbird Rants

‘Ejected and Dejected: Dodgers Shutout By Cardinals‘ – Lasorda’s Lair

‘Carl Edwards, Jr. promoted to Triple-A‘ – Cubbies Crib

‘Tanaka to be activated for Wednesday start‘ – MLB.com

Next: Cubs Tie Late, But Royals Rally To Win

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