KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Brandon Lowe, Austin Meadows and Mike Zunino homered and the Tampa Bay Rays pounded out 17 hits in a 14-7 rout of the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night.
Meadows, Randy Arozarena and Joey Wendle had three hits each, and Manual Margot and Yoshi Tsutsugo had three RBIs apiece as the Rays won their fifth straight. Tampa Bay entered the game hitting .220 as a team, just 23rd in the majors.
"We needed it," Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
The Rays roughed up starter Brad Keller (1-2) for five runs in 1 2/3 innings. Keller allowed three hits and walked three, including Lowe to load the bases on his final pitch.
"Tough, I can't pick up my defense when I walk three guys in an inning," Keller said. "I was trying to do too much."
Jake Newberry relieved and walked the next two batters to give Tampa Bay a 5-0 advantage.
"We came out and set the tone early on and got to Keller quickly," Cash said. "We got some early runs with some good at-bats, not a lot of damage, but a lot of walks, taking advantage of count control."
Carlos Santana homered and had two hits and three RBIs for the Royals.