Paulo Orlando’s triple lifts Royals to 6-4 win over A’s

The Oakland A’s at Kauffman Stadium, a sellout crowd and even a Salvador Perez knock down the left-field line. An April regular-season game or a September playoff game?

It wasn’t a Wild Card Game, but the Royals’ 6-4 victory on Friday was wild, complete with a scary moment for Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar and a bench clearing.

The Royals won it in the eighth with what’s becoming a staple in the arsenal, a Paulo Orlando triple. His shot to the right-center-field gap scored pinch runner Jarrod Dyson, and Orlando scored on Omar Infante’s sacrifice fly.

Orlando now has five major-league hits. Four are triples.

By then, the sellout crowd of 39,228 had touched many points on the emotional scale.

Early on, the night was about appreciation for Billy Butler, making his first appearance at The K as a member of the A’s. He received two standing ovations. The first when he received his American League championship ring in a pregame ceremony and the second when he came to the plate for the first time.

Later, the feelings flowed in a different direction.

Escobar found himself on the receiving end of a hard slide that resulted in the dugouts and bullpens emptying.

The scenario: The ball off the bat of Josh Riddick in the seventh inning ricocheted off the back of Kelvin Herrera’s leg to third baseman Mike Moustakas, who tossed to Escobar covering second.

Brett Lawrie was on first and came into second late with spikes high. He slid to the third-base side of the bag and caught Escobar on the left calf.

Escobar crumpled and almost before he hit the ground, Omar Infante, standing a few feet away, raised his arms in concern.

Escobar was in pain and would be helped off the field. But before that happened, the dugouts and bullpens emptied. Lawrie and Moustakas appeared to be jawing at each other, but it never rose to a confrontation level.

The home crowd reaction was that it was a dirty play. Royals manager Ned Yost didn’t see it that way.

“When we looked at it, it was a hard slide, but I don’t think Lawrie was anticipating the throw from Moose. When he saw Moose shuffle, he slid late,” Yost said.

Escobar was receiving treatment and unavailable to comment after the game, but Lawrie said his intent was to make a hard baseball play.

“No one’s trying to hurt anybody there,” Lawrie said. “That’s a situation where we’re in the sixth or seventh inning in a tight game. Nobody’s trying to hurt anybody. I’m just trying to break up a double play.”

Lawrie appeared to show concern for Escobar and Moustakas said something to him. That’s when the benches emptied.

“That’s why I stayed down, I was making sure he was OK,” Lawrie said. “Not rubbing it in anyone’s face or anything, I’m just making sure everyone’s OK and whatnot.

“That’s just your teammates kind of picking you up in that situation, and I feel like that would be vice versa over here with our guys as well.”

Asked directly if he was attempting to go in cleats up, Lawrie was emphatic in his denial.

“No, no, no, no, no doubt,” he said. “I would never try to cleat anybody. That’s totally not it. I wish him all the best and there was zero intention of ever wanting to hurt him. Even the thought of that would never even cross my mind.

“I’m sure I’ll reach out to him.”

The Royals announced by the end of the seventh inning that Escobar had suffered a mild strain of his left knee and a contusion. His status was described as day to day, but it could have been worse.

“It’s more of a bruise than anything,” Yost said. “It’s just going to be a couple of days.”

Christian Colon finished the game at shortstop, and Yost said even if Escobar is out for a matter of days, the team likely will make a roster move for an infielder.

The intense game went back and forth with the A’s erasing deficits early on.

The Royals got on the board in the third with nothing more menacing than a series of two-out singles.

Lorenzo Cain, who had extended his hitting streak to 10 games in the first inning, poked a grounder into right field, giving the inning life.

Cain swiped second, his third stolen base of the year, and the Royals’ ninth. Eric Hosmer was just foul with a drive into the left-field corner, but his blooper to the same side was well placed and fell in front of left fielder Mark Canha, easily scoring Cain.

A Kendrys Morales single pushed Hosmer to second, and Hosmer scored when Alex Gordon grounded a single to right.

The merry-go-round continued when A’s second baseman Ben Zobrist couldn’t get enough glove on Perez’s grounder and Morales scored for a 3-1 lead.

Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie could have used a shutdown inning here to keep the momentum. He got Butler on a ground out for the second straight time, but three pitches later the game was tied.

Ike Davis liked the first pitch he saw from Guthrie and hammered a 391-foot shot over the wall in right center field.

Then Stephen Vogt deposited Guthrie’s second pitch into the right-field bullpen.

“They took big swings,” Guthrie said.

Davis and Vogt were also in on the A’s first run.

Butler received a rousing ovation when he came to the plate for the first time, opening the second inning. The cheers became Moose calls when Butler bounced Guthrie’s second pitch to third baseman Mike Moustakas.

But the A’s didn’t leave the inning empty-handed. Davis followed with a single and moved to third on Vogt’s double.

Lawrie put down a bunt to the right side and squeezed home Davis.

The Royals went ahead 4-3 on Infante’s RBI single in the sixth, but Vogt opened the seventh with a game-tying home run, chasing Guthrie and setting up the dramatic final innings.

Royals 6, Athletics 4

This story was originally published April 17, 2015 at 9:49 PM with the headline "Paulo Orlando’s triple lifts Royals to 6-4 win over A’s."