KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Sean Murphy homered among his three hits and drove in four runs, Ozzie Albies also had four RBIs, and the Atlanta Braves beat the Kansas City Royals 9-3 on Saturday night.
Murphy had RBI doubles in the first and third innings, a solo homer in the fifth and a bases-loaded walk in the eighth. The homer went 395 feet over the left field fence for his third of the season and his second consecutive game. In the first two games of this series, he is 5 for 7 with two homers and seven RBIs.
“Getting hit is always good, but doing it early and just showing the rest of the guys that you belong with them,” Murphy said. “It's going well right now but just trying to stay consistent. I've been just trying to do my thing and not take too much stock in whatever pressure is coming from the outside.”
Albies had a two-run double in the third inning opening up a four-run lead early in the game. In the eighth inning, he singled in two more runs to put the game out of reach.
Bryce Elder (2-0) continued his promising start to the year going 5 1/3 innings and allowing three runs and seven hits, with two walks and four strikeouts.
“He just picked up right where left off from last year,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He's been very aggressive and guys have to love playing behind him, he works fast. ... He got on a nice little run there.”
After being down 5-1 in the fifth, Kansas City got back into the game with RBIs by Kyle Isbel and Jackie Bradley Jr. to pull within two.
The Royals got an RBI double from Salvador Perez in the first inning.
Kris Bubic (0-2) gave up his first homer in 28 innings while allowing five earned runs on 10 hits and one walk with three strikeouts in five innings.
“The stuff wasn’t very sharp today, sure it was cold and stuff like that, but I just felt like I couldn’t execute pitches when I got ahead in counts and gave up some hard contact today," Bubic said. "I didn’t have a great feel of putting away any guys with any pitch, but I wanted to keep battling to give us a chance."
The Royals are a league worst 1-8 at home this season. On the flip side, the Braves are a league best 7-1 on the road.
“We have played good teams, but that being said, we need to be better and compete with those kinds of teams," Royals manager Matt Quatraro said.
RAIN DELAY
The game was delayed by 2 1/2 hours before the first pitch was thrown due to a rain delay.
UP NEXT
The Braves send RHP Kyle Wright (0-0, 12.00 ERA) to the mound against Royals RHP Zack Greinke (0-3, 3.31).
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