Massey's go-ahead HR seals another comeback as Royals' hot stretch continues

DETROIT -- Michael Massey didn’t start Sunday’s game, but he knew he’d likely be playing at some point given the way the Royals like to use their bench and the way they match up against the Tigers.

So all his normal pregame work was moved to in-game, getting his body and mind ready, taking his swings in the cages and preparing for who he might come in to face.

And then he helped end the game with a win.

Massey’s go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning gave the Royals a 5-4 victory over the Tigers at Comerica Park, helping Kansas City split the series after losing the first two games here this weekend and coming back to win Saturday’s historic game with Salvador Perez’s record-breaking home run.

Ideally, the Royals don’t have to use their bench at all because their starting lineup has produced so well and gotten the team out to a big lead that the bench players can get a true off-day.

“But that’s not the way it goes,” manager Matt Quatraro said.

And that’s definitely not the way it goes in Detroit against this Tigers team. All seven games here this season at Comerica Park have been decided by one run. It started back in April, when the Royals got swept in three heartbreaking and bad losses. It continued into this weekend’s four-game series.

“It’s the expectation,” Quatraro said. “It seems like we’re just evenly matched, and we have been for a couple of years now. Every game seems to go this way. One swing of the bat, usually late in the game, something happens.”

Perez’s game-tying homer and Nick Loftin’s go-ahead homer in the seventh and eighth innings Saturday gave the Tigers a taste of their own medicine. Massey continued it Sunday. The Royals’ second baseman pinch-hit in the sixth inning once Tigers lefty starter Framber Valdez had left the game, but Massey flied out to right field.

He got another shot in the eighth inning, ironically against a lefty reliever in Drew Sommers, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch’s counterpunch to Quatraro bringing in his lefty hitters earlier in the game.

After Isaac Collins singled, Massey lifted a low slider a Statcast-projected 399 feet out to right field.

“Tough angle and low slot there, so he’s got good stuff,” Massey said. “Just trying to be ready to hit. Obviously in that situation, he doesn’t want to walk me to make it back to the top of the order there.”

The Tigers had scored four runs in the fifth inning off Royals starter Luinder Avila and reliever Matt Strahm, who got the soft double play ball he was looking for against left-handed hitter Riley Greene with the bases loaded and one out, but second baseman Andrew Velazquez and shortstop Tyler Tolbert misplayed it.

“I think I saw [Tolbert] at the last second and pulled up, but I think we both could have made the play and maybe got one out,” Velazquez said.

But Lucas Erceg, Nate Pearson, John Schreiber and Steven Cruz -- who earned his second save -- held the Tigers scoreless in the back-end of the game, even with the Tigers threatening in all four innings.

The Royals have been a disappointment this season with a 45-62 record, but their resiliency has shown up lately. The clubhouse is looser and more relaxed, which has translated to better play.

Kansas City is 7-3 since the All-Star break, and eight of those games have been decided by one run. In fact, Sunday marked their seventh consecutive one-run game, a stretch in which they had five comeback wins in the sixth inning or later.

This roster might be shaken up in a week with the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline approaching. For now, the Royals are trying to stay close. Why not try to win as many games as they can?

“One thing we’re really good at, all the way from the pitching staff to the guys that are position guys on the bench like me, is that it’s just one pitch at a time,” catcher Luke Maile said. “It’s one day at a time. You have to continue to do the things that got us here. It can be hard sometimes. We’ve had a lot of tough luck. But there’s commitment to each other in this clubhouse.

“We’ve got the Deadline looming. There’s always talk about that, and it’s always kind of a thorn in the side this time of year. But guys want to show up and play for each other every day, and I think that’s the most important.”