KANSAS CITY -- Michael A. Taylor wanted the rookies to commit.
Following his walk-off single in the Royals’ 4-3 win over the Guardians on Friday night, Taylor was about to get the "Salvy Splash" treatment. After wins at Kauffman Stadium, the player doing the on-field postgame interview with Bally Sports Kansas City host Joel Goldberg gets the water cooler dumped on them -- ideally, by surprise.
Salvador Perez typically handles these duties, but rookies Bobby Witt Jr. and MJ Melendez have taken over as of late with their veteran catcher on the injured list.
Taylor wasn’t going to get caught. He deked the two coming up behind him, celebrating when the ice water splashed onto the field. Undeterred, they found another cooler and tried again. This time, Taylor embraced the splash.
“Wanted to get them the second time. But I felt bad,” Taylor said. “It actually felt pretty good, so it wasn’t too bad.”
Such is the treatment when you deliver the walk-off hit in a comeback victory, punctuated by the Royals’ veterans and helped along by their rookies. With the game tied in the ninth inning, manager Mike Matheny let left-handed batter Vinnie Pasquantino face lefty reliever Sam Hentges. The rookie responded with a rocket of a double to the right-center-field wall. It came off the bat with a 108.9 mph exit velocity and would have been a home run in all but two ballparks -- Oracle Park and The K, where it bounced off the top of the wall.
“I hit it, immediately thought, ‘Oh no,’ because I thought the guy was going to catch it,” Pasquantino said. “My next thought was, ‘Sneak out of here, that’d be awesome.’ And then my next thought was, ‘I need to get to second base.’ Kind of ran through some different emotions there. Just happy it set the stage for Michael A. Taylor to send us home.”
Taylor recorded the Royals’ first hit of the night -- off Cleveland righty Aaron Civale, who allowed one run over seven innings -- and the last, a two-strike single through the right side of the infield that scored pinch-runner Edward Olivares.
“Just looking to protect anything in the strike zone,” Taylor said. “Trying to slow the ball down, thinking the other way right there to put myself in the best position to hit all pitches.”
The hit gave the Royals their second walk-off victory of the year, rewarding Scott Barlow with the win after a 28-pitch ninth inning in which he escaped two bases-loaded jams. Brady Singer allowed three runs over seven innings, including the go-ahead, two-run homer to Franmil Reyes in the seventh.
Reyes' homer came moments after the Royals decided not to challenge a call on José Ramírez’s double. Kyle Isbel laid out for what could have been a highlight-reel catch if second-base umpire Carlos Torres hadn't signaled a safe call. It was close, but the Royals didn’t challenge.
“You see the ball in the grass,” manager Mike Matheny said. “Our guys are so good, we celebrate them all the time. We trust what they see. We don’t have a monitor. That’s not something that we even get our way into. If it’s a 50-50, something that we believe could get overturned, we’ll take our shot, especially in the last third of the game. But we get a clear no, the answer is going to come from me as a no.”
With one swing, Whit Merrifield made that play an asterisk in the scorebook. The Royals' leadoff hitter hammered a 413-foot, game-tying homer in the eighth.
“That was a good one,” Merrifield said. “One of my better ones. Kind of flushed it, perfect trajectory, angle, I was really on balance so I could admire it for a little bit.”
With most of the focus this season zeroed in on the rookie hitters, the veterans are still helping in crucial ways. Taylor is having one of his better years offensively, drastically improving his walk rate and cutting down on strikeouts.
That approach showed up in the biggest moment Friday.
“He’s continued to learn and work on his swing and figure out what makes his swing good,” Merrifield said. “And he’s got such quick hands, he’s such a strong dude, that he’s figuring out what his swing needs to look like for him to have success. … It's been fun to watch.”
And the rookies are certainly learning from their teammates. Pasquantino teased another shirt when he was asked what his reaction was when Taylor walked it off.
“You’ll see my reaction in a few days when a package from Amazon comes in. I've got a few Michael A. Tater shirts coming in that I will be very proudly wearing around this locker room,” said Pasquantino, who wore a fun tee of his own postgame. “Michael is a great person. I like watching him play baseball. I like watching him prepare to play baseball. I’m happy that he was the one who was able to walk us off tonight.”