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 the Royals 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, snapping an eight-game losing streak that was all sorts of ugly over the past nine days.
The ugliness threatened to continue if not for Michael Massey’s massive game-tying home run in the eighth inning. But a scoreless ninth from closer Lucas Erceg put the game in the hands of the top of the Royals’ order. Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr. both walked and moved up to second and third base, and Garcia dashed home on a walk-off wild pitch.
Safe at the plate. Streak snapped. Sweet relief.
It was a game of comebacks for the Royals, who faced a deficit by the second inning on Coby Mayo’s three-run home run off starter Kris Bubic. But Bubic 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. Massey’s sacrifice fly put the Royals on the board in the second inning. 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 Vinnie Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly.
And Witt came through in the seventh with the Royals’ third sacrifice fly of the night.
That lead hardly lasted. A day after he punched out the side, Matt Strahm entered for the eighth and allowed a two-run home run to Adley Rutschman.
Kansas City’s bullpen issues might have continued, but on Tuesday, it was time for the Royals’ offense to pick up its pitchers.
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 the Royals can ask for.