Wild one! Royals rally in 8th before snapping skid on walk-off WP

KANSAS CITY -- The Royals needed a win in any way, shape or form on Tuesday night, and boy did they get one, even if it was best watched peeking through your hands and holding your breath.

But they can breathe easy now, or at least a little easier, because they’re back in the win column with a 6-5 walk-off win over the Orioles at Kauffman Stadium. It snapped an eight-game losing streak that was all sorts of ugly over the past nine days.

The cathartic release and big swing came in the bottom of the eighth on Michael Massey's massive game-tying home run. And the win came in the bottom of the ninth inning without the ball being put in play. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr. both walked to lead off the frame against O’s closer Ryan Helsley, and despite Vinnie Pasquantino striking out, the ball he struck out on was a wild pitch, moving the runners up a bag.

Five pitches later, Garcia dashed home on another wild pitch, one that bounced in front of catcher Adley Rutschman, giving him no chance to tag Garcia out.

Safe at the plate. Streak snapped. Sweet relief.

“When you’re in a stretch like that,” starter Kris Bubic said, “it’s probably going to come down to a game like that to get out of it. Where you got to fight and you got to claw, and go back and forth there.”

It was truly a game of comebacks for the Royals, and that probably was the best way for them to get those losses behind them. They faced a deficit by the second inning when Bubic allowed a three-run homer to Coby Mayo. But Bubic, who surpassed 500 career innings on Tuesday, kept it there and worked his way through six innings.

That allowed the Royals to climb their way back by manufacturing runs, exactly what this offense needed to do to get out of this early season funk.

In the second, Carter Jensen doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Massey’s sacrifice fly put Kansas City on the board. In the fifth, Kyle Isbel doubled and scored on Garcia’s single. Witt moved Garcia to second with a groundout. Garcia stole third base and scored on Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly.

And Witt came through in the seventh with the Royals’ third sacrifice fly of the game.

“Move the line,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Those guys that are throwing, they have elite stuff. To put those balls in play -- it sounds easy, right? Just get it in the air. It’s not that easy. To do that when you don’t feel great at the plate, that shows resolve as well.”

The Royals had to show resolve in more ways than just their at-bats. After Witt’s go-ahead sac fly, the lead evaporated quickly in the eighth when Matt Strahm -- who had punched out the side on Monday -- entered and allowed a two-run homer to Adley Rutschman.

It looked like a loss we’ve seen before with more questions about bullpen roles forming. But it was time for the Royals’ offense to pick up its pitchers. Massey’s home run was his first of the season. He’s gotten off to a cold start, first with an injured-list stint and entering Tuesday hitting .154 with a .416 OPS.

Massey’s Statcast-projected 412-foot homer was the first hit that O’s reliever Rico Garcia has allowed this season, snapping a streak of 33 batters.

“This is a hard game,” Massey said. “That’s not an excuse, it’s just the reality of it. No one is going to be 100% all the time. The only thing you can truly control is what’s going through your head. What’s your approach? Try to get a pitch you can handle and do something with it.”

If Tuesday’s game was about resolve, perhaps no one embodied it more than closer Lucas Erceg, who came on for the ninth after a 32-pitch blown save on Monday. Erceg walked the first batter he faced, but he got out of it with the score intact, setting up the walk-off finish.

Now that the losing streak is in the past, it’s time to see if the Royals can keep it there. They need to if there’s any hope of them digging out of the hole they’ve created for themselves in the first three weeks of the season.

One win won’t undo all of it, but it is a step forward. Right now, that’s all they can ask for.

“There’s nothing better than winning games,” Garcia said. “You have to get used to it.”