Rays rout Royals to end skid vs. champs

ST. PETERSBURG — A lot of pent-up frustration got purged Wednesday night at Tropicana Field.

The Rays entered the game with an 0-5 mark against the Royals, and they had lost 12 of their last 13 against the defending World Series champions. But the Rays got busy early, scoring four in the first and never taking their foot off the gas pedal in a 12-0 win.

“Good win, nice to win, finally figured out a way to beat those guys,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “They’ve given us everything we can handle and more. So it was a nice win.”

Steven Souza Jr.’s three-run homer paced the four-run first. Brad Miller hit a solo shot and Kevin Kiermaier added a three-run homer to account for most of the Rays’ scoring.

“It felt really good,” Souza said. “That’s a team that’s just kind of picked at us. In Kansas City, they kind of took it to us. And here they scratched out a couple wins that maybe we should have [taken] a hold of. To do what we did tonight, hopefully we can come back and split the series and show where this team is headed.”

Jake Odorizzi started for the Rays and continued his recent run of excellence with his third consecutive scoreless start, allowing just two hits in six innings to move to 6-5 on the season.

“Odo was outstanding again,” Cash said. “He’s really gotten on a nice run here, which has been great to see. He had the fastball working at the top of the zone and really threw some good splitters, change, whatever you want to call them, to get some finish at the bottom.”

Edinson Volquez started for the Royals and struggled from the rough first inning until he made his exit in the sixth inning with eight runs (seven earned) and 11 hits showing on his line, falling to 8-10.

“They got me today,” Volquez said. “I didn’t have my changeup tonight. …

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