KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- About two feet below the "330" sign in left field and inches right of the bright yellow stripe plastered on the Kauffman Stadium wall, the cycle died on Friday night.
Mike Moustakas entered his seventh-inning at-bat already with a single, double and triple under his belt. He was just a home run shy of the franchise's first cycle in nearly 25 years. But Moustakas' floating, drifting, carrying ball to left field fell short of history despite some help from Lorenzo Cain in the on-deck circle.
"I was pushing it," Cain said. "I was blowing it."
Moustakas' drive banged off the wall for an RBI double instead, capping a 4-for-5 night as the Royals' offense battered Yankees pitching in a 12-1 win Friday night. It was Moustakas' second four-hit night of the season after recording just two in the previous four seasons combined.
He was one of five Royals with multiple hits and was one of six Royals who drove in a run. Lorenzo Cain set a new career high with five RBIs in a 3-for-4 night.
"Cycle or no cycle, we played a great game as a team," Moustakas said. "We were able to beat a really good team like the Yankees over there today."
Moustakas said he had never hit for the cycle before, hypothesizing that the triple was the piece holding him back. But he squeezed a triple down the right-field line during Friday's third inning, the ball rolling around the curved fence. He slid into third with his fourth career triple and first in more than a year.
He had already sliced a double to left field in the first and would single to center in the fifth. The home run proved elusive for the power-swinging Moustakas.
"Everybody in the dugout was rooting for him to hit that cycle," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "His last at-bat, that was the perfect spot to hit it right down that line. We were just hoping it had enough."
The ball didn't have enough, but the Kansas City offense did, hammering 17 hits and tying a season high with 12 runs. The Yankees called on five different pitchers to quiet the Royals' bats, but only Branden Pinder emerged with a scoreless appearance.
Kansas City roughed up New York starter Michael Pineda, tagging him for five runs on 10 hits just one start after Pineda struck out 16 batters. He punched out just two Royals on Friday.
"I just felt like we got pitches up," Cain said. "We swung at pitches up and allowed us to drive pitches. I think that was the main focus tonight. Lay off balls in the dirt, sliders in the dirt, off speed in the dirt."
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
