KANSAS CITY – The Royals didn’t really have much going offensively throughout Tuesday night in a fairly quiet game overall. Their best opportunity came in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two outs. Maikel Garcia’s hard-hit liner went directly to right fielder Lawrence Butler’s glove.
When the opportunity came around again, the Royals didn’t squander it.
A ninth-inning comeback rally led to a 4-3 walk-off win over the A’s at Kauffman Stadium when Bobby Witt Jr. blooped a single into left field to give the Royals their third victory in a row and second of this four-game set against the A’s.
“It’s just one of those games where you never know when that hit’s going to happen,” Witt said. “You’re just waiting and waiting and waiting, and then it happens. So that’s just baseball. We got the opportunities. We got them at the end of the game and came through.”
Down by two runs in the ninth, Salvador Perez reached first base on a catcher’s interference, Michael Massey ripped a one-out single into center field and Carter Jensen walked to load the bases with one out. When Massey reached base as the tying run on first, John Rave came in to pinch-run for Perez at second.
Against A’s lefty Hogan Harris, Tyler Tolbert stepped in to pinch-hit for left-handed batter Kyle Isbel, and – after a check swing call that ended up getting A’s manager Mark Kotsay ejected – Tolbert snuck the game-tying base hit through the left side of the infield.
“Just try to grind through an at-bat,” Tolbert said. “Not try to do too much, and thank God I held up on the check swing.”
The A’s turned to hard-throwing righty Elvis Alvarado to handle the top of the Royals’ order. Isaac Collins’ 96.3 mph lineout to center field represented the hardest-hit ball of the bottom of the ninth inning.
Witt’s 66.2 mph bloop single represented the softest-hit ball of the frame. But he was ready for it on the first pitch, and all that mattered was that it found grass.
“You know [Alvarado] throws hard, so you just want to look for a pitch in the zone and be ready for it,” Witt said. “... I was excited. Any time you get a win here at Kauffman, walk-off wins are always fun.”
Starter Daniel Lynch IV allowed one run in the first inning but then settled down to get through four with just that one run allowed, throwing 45 pitches (27 strikes) in his third start since being moved back to the rotation. After a long, 23-pitch first inning that included two walks, Lynch was efficient the rest of the way and finished the fourth at 45 pitches. Reliever Mason Black allowed two runs in three innings to see the A’s expand their lead, but the Royals received scoreless innings from Alex Lange and Carlos Duran – their newest reliever called up Tuesday – to keep the game close.
Thanks to the Royals’ comeback, Duran’s scoreless ninth inning earned him his first career win. That was on top of his first career strikeout, which came on a slider that Donovan Walton swung through in the ninth, on his first day as a Royal. Duran has already made his big league debut, coincidentally for these A’s last year when he allowed three runs in one-third of an inning, but he felt like Tuesday was a debut all over again – with much better results.
“I met him like 10 hours ago, but he’s a great personality, really fun to be around,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “You can tell already he’s happy, he’s grateful for the opportunity, and it was a great way to start his career with the Royals.”
The late comeback meant the Royals had a lot to celebrate postgame, from Duran’s first win, to Tolbert being named player of the game by the clubhouse leaders, to the win overall. A lot had to go right to get them to that point, and they caught some breaks along the way. But it didn’t dull the postgame celebration.
“I was just thinking, ‘It’s got to happen at some point,’” Lynch said. “We were putting ourselves in position to score runs, and I was like, ‘It’s got to turn at some point.’”