(AP) Heath Fillmyer used a hockey mentality to get a baseball milestone Wednesday night.
Fillmyer allowed three singles over seven innings for his first major league win, Adalberto Mondesi and Drew Butera each drove in three, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago Cubs 9-0.
Anthony Rizzo drilled Fillmyer (1-1) with a line drive on the left heel on his third pitch, but Fillmyer stuck around and didn’t allow another hit until David Bote and Tommy La Stella singled with one out in the seventh inning.
“Did I see it?” Fillmyer said. “I felt it. It felt like a hockey puck off the boot. Coming up, I played a lot of hockey. I knew I had to walk it off a little bit. It shook right off and felt pretty good after that. I didn’t try to think about it to let it bother me.”
Royals manager Ned Yost let the right-hander stay in to face left-handed Kyle Schwarber with two out and two on in the seventh, even though lefty Tim Hill was warming in the bullpen. Fillmyer got Schwarber to pop up.
“Normally a young pitcher in the seventh inning, you don’t want to put them in a position to lose the game,” Yost said. “I made my mind up he was going to pitch through it. This is his first big league win if he’s going to get in trouble, he’s either going to win it or lose it himself in the seventh inning.”
Mondesi belted a 2-0 pitch from Jose Quintana for a three-run homer in the seventh. It was Mondesi’s fourth home run and his first since July 15, a span of 42 at-bats.
Butera hit a two-run, two-out double with the bases loaded in the second inning and added a sacrifice fly during a four-run eighth.
Jorge Bonifacio, who entered hitting .103 in his past 16 games, Brett Phillips and Hunter Dozier each had two hits and a walk and combined to score seven runs. Bonifacio had an RBI double in the eighth, while Phillips contributed an RBI triple.
Quintana (10-8) dropped to 3-10 in 25 starts against the Royals. He was removed after Mondesi’s homer, giving up five runs on six hits and two walks.
