Eric Hosmer delivers in the clutch, Royals beat Orioles 3-2

The sequence lasted just more than 11 seconds, enough time for Eric Hosmer to turn on an inside fastball, a Gold Glove center fielder to dive, and Lorenzo Cain to read the flight of the baseball and gallop around the bases in the warm night air.

It was enough time for the Royals to secure a 3-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, winning for the fourth time in five nights and building up steam in their own ballpark. In the bottom of the eighth, Hosmer roped a one-out double off Orioles reliever Vidal Nuno, scoring Cain from first base and delivering a victory over a first-place team.

The drive, a hard-hit ball that created a parabola in right-center field, eluded the glove of Orioles center fielder Adam Jones, who laid out at the last moment, and left Hosmer at second base, looking back toward the Royals dugout.

“As soon as it hit the ground, I knew Lo was gonna score,” Hosmer said. “It’s a good feeling.”

It was a combination that had provided so many important moments over the last three seasons, the clutch hitting of Hosmer, the long strides of Cain, burning around the base paths. Yet off the bat, Hosmer was not quite sure. All spring, he had shared a field with Jones, competing alongside the All-Star outfielder in the World Baseball Classic, where he had made one great play after another. So as the ball hung in the air, Hosmer wanted to watch it fall. He knew the Orioles would be playing straight up, he said. He knew it felt good off the bat. But he still had to wait.

“I knew it had a chance,” Hosmer said. “But at the same time, I got a good look at him running down a lot of balls in the World Baseball Classic. With him out there, you never feel safe.”

As he ran toward second base, Cain was slightly more confident. He read the ball down. He opted to take a chance, rounding second base just before Jones laid out.

“I feel like I read it pretty early,” Cain said. “I knew Hos hit it good. If he had gotten closer to it, he would have had to dive to make it close. Sometimes you take a chance. I just took off.”

There was no play at the plate. The ball kicked around the outfield for a moment as Cain cruised home. Kauffman Stadium reveled in a late lead. Five days after falling to 10 games under .500 with the worst offense in baseball, the Royals have climbed off the mat and offered five days of winning baseball, save for one ugly night in Tampa Bay.

The offense has scored 24 runs in its last five games. The pitching carried the night on Friday. Danny Duffy allowed two runs in seven innings. Joakim Soria earned the win with a scoreless eighth, lowering his ERA to 2.16. Kelvin Herrera notched his sixth save, overcoming a poor defensive decision by right fielder Jorge Soler in the ninth.

With two outs and nobody on, Soler dived for a sinking liner and played a likely single from Caleb Joseph into a triple. Moments later, Herrera managed to put down the threat.

The rest of the night offered glimpses at the Royals’ formula for winning: Mike Moustakas and Cain hammered consecutive doubles in the first, opening the scoring. Brandon Moss crushed a 456-foot homer into the fountains. Alex Gordon threw out Baltimore’s Mark Trumbo at the plate with two outs in the third. Gordon would eventually leave the game with tightness in his right groin. He was listed as “day to day”, according to the Royals. But the run prevention was imperative in a close game.

“When I saw the ‘Go’ sign,” Duffy said. “I was like, eh, I’m going to the dugout.”

Hosmer, once mired in a brutal April slump, entered the day batting .397 with a .438 on-base percentage and slugging .569 in his last 15 games. On Friday, he finished 2 for 4, raising his season average to .289. In the eighth, he waited on a fastball from the left-handed Nuno, who once played college baseball at Baker University.

“That’s a benefit to hitting behind a couple lefties,” Hosmer said, “especially just seeing the way he attacked Moose. He liked to throw the slider a lot and mix in the fastball as well. I saw a couple sliders, and I just told myself to be ready for the fastball out of over the plate and don’t miss it.”

Maybe a month ago, Hosmer rolls over the pitch on the inner half of the plate. But on Friday, he barreled it, the fever starting to break inside the Royals’ clubhouse.

“When those type of hits fall,” Hosmer said, “it’s definitely a good sign.”

Hours earlier, on early Friday afternoon, Royals manager Ned Yost had returned to his office at Kauffman Stadium and juggled his lineup once more. After three victories in four days against the Rays at Tropicana Field, Yost was not moving shortstop Alcides Escobar from the leadoff spot. That was locked in place — for now.

The decision to return Escobar to the top spot on Monday, a statistically dubious proposition, had resulted in 21 runs in four games. So that was that. But Yost did make other tweaks. He moved Gordon to the ninth spot after his batting average sagged to .158 on Thursday afternoon. He returned Moss to the designated hitter spot after a day off on Thursday.

Gordon had started a game as the ninth hitter just once in his career — on July 29, 2010, just days after he returned from a stint at Class AAA Omaha. Yet Yost was looking for any sign of hope.

“He’s working on some things,” Yost said. “He looks a little better in batting practice.”

For most of the night, Gordon continued to search for comfort at the plate. He finished 0 for 1 with a walk and a strikeout before exiting for pinch hitter Jorge Bonifacio in the bottom of the seventh. His groin had tightened up after he gave chase on a double to deep left in the seventh.

Yet as Gordon struggled at the plate, Moss, a gluttonous strikeout machine in the season’s first six weeks, delivered a thunderous shot in the fifth, crushing a solo homer into the top deck of the fountains against Orioles starter Dylan Bundy. The baseball soared a projected 456 feet and splashed into the Water Spectacular, giving the Royals a 2-1 lead. Moments later, an unidentified man jumped into the fountains to retrieve the baseball before climbing back toward the outfield concourse. The man was apprehended and arrested by the Kansas City Police Department, according to a Royals official.

The lead would last until the top of the seventh, when Joseph opened the inning with his second double and scored on a wild pitch. For Duffy, the errant pitch — and run — meant a no-decision. Yost opted for Soria in the eighth.

“Skipper made the right decision to put Jack in there,” Duffy said. “But I wanted to pitch 13 innings. That’s how good I felt.”

Duffy finished with six strikeouts and one walk, lowering his ERA to 3.38. He lasted 97 pitches. And he gave his team an opportunity to win. The decisive run would come in the bottom of the eighth, 11 seconds showcasing everything the Royals can be when things are breaking right, when the bullpen is producing and Hosmer is hitting and Cain is running free on the bases.

“No doubt in my mind,” Cain said. “I ran as hard as I could and I saw [third base coach Mike Jirschele] wave his arm. I don’t know what happened after that. I was just hustling.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2017 at 10:04 PM with the headline "Eric Hosmer delivers in the clutch, Royals beat Orioles 3-2."