The Kansas City Royals produced one of MLB's rarest scoring lines Monday afternoon, crossing the plate in every inning they batted during a 15-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Because Kansas City was the home team, the Royals batted only eight times and did not need a bottom of the ninth. They still joined a short historical list: no American League team has scored in all nine innings, and Kansas City became the 21st team to score in every inning of a game.
The Royals set the tone immediately against Philadelphia ace Cristopher Sánchez, scoring six runs in the first inning. Sánchez entered with a 2.00 ERA and left with a still-strong 2.62 ERA after allowing a career-high nine runs in 3 ⅓ innings.
"There was a lot in the first inning that was really positive," Royals manager Matt Quatraro said after the game. "... Continuing to add inning after inning (was big). As you can tell, those first four innings, they were one swing away from it being a totally different ballgame... The offense stayed at it."
Utility man Tyler Tolbert led the barrage by going 5 for 5 with a double and his second career home run. In one afternoon, his season batting line jumped from.243/.310/.243 to.333/.383/.429.
Kansas City finished with 22 hits, the 11th time in franchise history the club has reached that mark in a game. The Royals sent 50 batters to the plate, with 28 reaching base for a.560 on-base percentage.
With the game out of reach, the Phillies used third-string catcher Garrett Stubbs on the mound in the eighth. Kansas City scored two more runs against him on four hits and a walk, completing the inning-by-inning scoring feat.
The achievement is rarer than a perfect game, with 21 teams having scored in every inning compared with 24 perfect games in MLB history. The Royals are the first team to do it since the Chicago White Sox against Cleveland on Sept. 12, 2016.
Kansas City had done it once before, scoring in all eight innings against the then-Oakland Athletics on Sept. 14, 1998. The Phillies had previously allowed a run in every inning against the New York Giants on June 1, 1923.
The win moved the Royals to 37-54, tied with the Colorado Rockies for the worst record in baseball. Philadelphia fell to 50-41 and remained 3 ½ games back in the NL East.