The Royals saved the series final against Tampa Bay, 9-8, on Wednesday night. With the victory, Kansas City finished the house of 10 games with a winning record of 6-4.
As they had done in the last two games, the Royals dug into a serious hole. In the top of the first, Jakob Junis making the third start of the season, Tampa Bay scored him for four races. Joey Wendle doubled in one race, Brandon Lowe crushed a two-run homer, and Francisco Mejia doubled in the fourth.
Faced early with a large deficit, Kansas City began eliminating Rays owner Michael Wacha. In the home half of the second, Hunter Dozier centered his first home round of the season in the left bullpen. Two innings later, Jorge Soler beat his first home round of the day to make it 4-3.
After three innings without a score, Tampa Bay scratched during the fifth round, which resulted in an unorthodox play. With the first and second runners-up and no one outside, Yoshi Tsutsugo threw a soft ball to Andrew Benintendi’s left field. When the ball fell, Benintendi tried to throw Brett Phillips into a game of force, but wildly knocked Hunter Dozier out. While the ball bounced back, Phillips tried to score from the third. However, Salvador Perez calmly picked up the ball and threw it to Junis, who cut Phillips to the plate. However, at the next beating, Wendle drove off with a sacrificial fly.
Following 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth, the Royals had one of the most unfortunate halves in recent memory. The shot started with Carlos Santana hitting a 103.6 mph shot on the wall in the right field, but was shot down by a jumping Phillips. In the ensuing bat, Perez smoked at a speed of 107.1 mph toward the right field wall. However, the ball hit the top of the wall and went back inside. To make matters worse, Perez thought the ball was gone and started trotting from home. It was labeled between the first and the second.
Two unfortunate outings should be enough, right? Wrong.
Soler became the third victim of the half, when he hit a 103.6 mph ball on the left field. This ball, like Perez’s, hit the top of the wall and went back inside. To pour salt into the wound, the half ended on a dive stop from Wendle at third base.
After Tampa Bay extended their lead 6-3, the Royals made up for not going through the sixth. Andrew Benintendi led with one, Michael A. Taylor went, and Hanser Alberto came with a double RBI-double – scoring both runners.
If things couldn’t get more electric, Santana introduced a two-way bomb, go, with two strokes in the right field. It was his second in as many days.
The Rays, however, hit back and tied the game with a one-shot, RBI-double by Randy Arozarena in the top of the eighth. They regained the lead in ninth on another Rend double from Wendle.
At the bottom of the ninth, the Royals used magic from the devil that made fans feel nostalgic. Taylor started the half with a single bloop to the right field (same place as the single hit by Josh Willingham in Wild Card 2014). Dyson came on and immediately slipped a second base. Alberto beat him to third place with Nicky Lopez. With the inside pulled, Lopez perfected a safety net to score Dyson – tying things to 8.
A few beats later, Perez came with runners to the first and second with two outs. On a 2-1 slide, Perez snatched a single pass from a diving Wendle for a walk winner. Sound familiar?
Kansas City (10-7) has a day off tomorrow before embarking on a nine-game trip that begins in Detroit. Mike Minor will face Casey Mize on Friday. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:10 pm CT.