Royals complete sweep of Orioles with wild 9-8 victory

Royals catcher Drew Butera thought Mark Trumbo’s foul ball was hit straight back and out of play until a couple of teammates caught his attention.

First was Salvador Perez, screaming from the Royals dugout. Suddenly, a burst of white uniform with pink Mother’s Day trim hustled past Butera. That was pitcher Joakim Soria, who had sprinted from the mound deep into foul territory, stuck out his glove basket-style and made the catch that ended the eighth inning,

“He keeps telling me he wants to catch pop-ups,” Butera said. “Here’s your chance. Thank God, he’s athletic.”

A pitcher racing to catch a ball in foul territory may have been the most unusual play of a wild Royals’ 9-8 victory over the Orioles on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium. But the play had company.

In that eighth inning alone, center field Lorenzo Cain crashed into the wall to make a catch and bailed out right fielder Jorge Bonifacio on a ball between them that Bonifacio lost in the sun.

The sun made things difficult all afternoon for the Royals — Alex Gordon picked up Cain on a gap shot in the fifth, and Mike Moustakas lost a pop-up that bounced next to him in the second.

But the Royals made plays and came up with enough big moments to complete a three-game sweep of the Orioles, and win their fourth straight and sixth of seven heading into an off day with the Yankees arriving for a three-game series beginning Tuesday.

“It’s nice to get everything going in the right direction,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

The triumph was delivered in comeback fashion after the Orioles opened a 5-0 lead in the fourth against starter Chris Young. A two-run homer by Caleb Joseph was Young’s last pitch in his second start this season filling in for injured Ian Kennedy.

“His last 10 pitches he started to flatten out a little bit,” Yost said.

The Royals bullpen surrendered three runs over the final 5  1/3 innings, with closer Kelvin Herrera picking up his third save in three days after escaping a jam in the ninth when the Orioles picked up one run and had runners at second and third with one out. Herrera struck out Seth Smith and got Jonathan Schoop on a fly-out to Gordon.

The Royals battled back and built the lead with power.

RBI singles by Butera and Alcides Escobar got the Royals on the board, and Moustakas tied the game with a three-run homer, his team-leading ninth of the season.

For Moustakas, who lost his mother to cancer and other illnesses two years ago, coming up with a big blast and collecting four RBIs on Mother’s Day was especially meaningful.

“It’s nice on a day like today,” Moustakas said. “It makes me miss my mom even more. I miss her every day. But, yeah, it’s special to do it today. Pretty cool.”

The Royals weren’t finished scoring. They picked up two runs in the fifth, the first coming courtesy of Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, who with two runners on collected a sacrifice-bunt attempt off Escobar’s bat and fired to second base. Only no player was covering the bag as the ball sailed into the outfield.

The rest of the Royals’ scoring came via the long ball. Jorge Soler made his first home run in a Royals uniform a memorable one. He hit a laser beam to center field in the sixth that MLB Statcast measured at 464 feet, the longest by a Royals player this season.

In the seventh, Butera put an exclamation point on his day at the plate with a solo shot to left center. Butera, who also homered in his previous start at Tampa Bay, tied a career high with three hits.

The sweep of the Orioles was the first by the Royals in the regular season since 2000. The five-run deficit was the largest overcome this season, and the offense, silent for much of the season, has provided the most encouraging sign.

The Royals, who averaged 2.73 runs for the season when they walked off the field a 1-0 loser to the Indians a week earlier in falling to 10-20, have averaged 5.7 runs in the seven games since then and stand at 16-21.

“We struggled a little bit the first month, but the good thing about us is we never gave up,” Butera said. “We knew we had a good team with a lot of baseball left. So, credit to our guys. We kept working hard and grinding it out.”

Royals 9, Orioles 8

This story was originally published May 14, 2017 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Royals complete sweep of Orioles with wild 9-8 victory."