Alex Gordon’s homer in 10th gives Royals a 7-6 win over Rangers

Moments after Alex Gordon’s home run cleared the right-field fence, Royals manager Ned Yost sent pitching coach Dave Eiland on a fact-finding mission. Eiland found closer Greg Holland at the other end of the dugout. Holland was in line to collect a 7-6 victory over the Rangers, if he could pitch a two-inning stint for the first time in 1,010 days.

“Do you want to go back out?” Eiland asked. Holland last logged two innings in one game on Aug. 5, 2012. He also had not blown a save, as he did in Tuesday’s ninth inning, since July 24, 2014. Holland responded in the affirmative. He wanted the baseball, and the second chance to become the first Royals reliever to hold a lead in a see-saw contest.

“You don’t see games like that a lot,” Yost said. “Where, boom, we score, boom, they score, we score, they score, we score. It was a great game.”

It was also a rarity for a Kansas City club (21-12) with such a vaunted bullpen. The Royals relied upon their defense and their bats to offset various mistakes, and poor luck, from their pitchers.

Gordon detonated a leadoff homer off reliever Stolmy Pimentel for Kansas City’s third solo shot of the night. Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas also went deep. The offense stunned Texas starter Nick Martinez with a three-run flurry to pull ahead in the sixth.

That inning solidified the game’s pattern for the final frames. Kansas City would pull ahead, only to cough the lead back up. Edinson Volquez was charged with his fourth run in the sixth inning, when Ryan Madson could not silence Texas after Volquez yielded a leadoff double. Luke Hochevar experienced bizarre batted-ball luck to give up a seventh-inning run.

“It’s not many times our bullpen gives up a lead, or gives up a run like that,” Hosmer said. “For our offense to pick them up is big. That’s what good teams do.”

In the bottom of the ninth, Holland arrived in search of his seventh save in 2015. After a leadoff single by outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, Holland knuckled down for two outs. He ran the count full to third baseman Adrian Beltre.

The first five pitches of the at-bat were sliders. Beltre fouled back a fastball. Then he fouled off another slider. Holland tried another slider for the eighth pitch. It caught enough of the plate for Beltre to line a game-tying single.

“In that situation, with the tying run on second, you’ve got to be smart about where you throw the baseball,” Holland said. “And I knew that. I just didn’t get it there. It wasn’t pitch selection. It was where I threw it.”

He did not have to wait long for redemption. Gordon had never faced Pimentel, a 25-year-old sophomore from the Dominican Republic. During a pregame hitters meeting, Gordon learned Pimentel leaned on his fastball. He carried that knowledge with him to the plate.

Pimentel tested Gordon with a 92-mph fastball at the waist. The pregame preparation paid off.

“I just said, if I get a good pitch to hit, a fastball down the middle or something, I’m going to try to put a good swing on it,” Gordon said. “It worked.”

Gordon finished the night with three extra-base hits. Save for Omar Infante and Jarrod Dyson, every Royal collected a hit. The flurry compensated for the pitching. Texas tagged Volquez for four runs on six hits and three walks.

Volquez returned from his shortest outing of the season, a three-inning stint that ended when a blister burst on his right thumb. Volquez could not grip the baseball against the Indians. The training staff repaired the wound and declared him healthy for his next start.

But his command was still spotty. He allowed a leadoff homer to Choo in the first. On two occasions he walked Texas’ No. 9 hitter, Delino DeShields. Both times, DeShields stole second base and scored soon after. Volquez indicated he lacked the precision he utilized in April.

“What I want to do is pitch like I did in the first couple starts,” Volquez said. “Stay aggressive in the strike zone. And tonight I was behind in the count a couple times.”

Kansas City trailed by two at the start of the sixth. Martinez presented a challenge. No Royal, save for Kendrys Morales, had ever faced him before. He entered the night with a 1.47 ERA in six starts. The players were curious if the statistics matched the stuff.

For five innings, Martinez defused the land mines within the Kansas City lineup. In the sixth, facing the hitters for the third time through the order, Martinez wilted. “Our bats, they finally woke up in the sixth inning,” Yost said.

The flurry started with Lorenzo Cain’s double. Eric Hosmer plated him with an RBI single. Morales tied the game with a double. After an error by Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus, Omar Infante gave his club their first advantage with a sacrifice fly.

The excitement was short-lived. Volquez yielded a leadoff double to designated hitter Kyle Blanks. In came Madson, who gave up a single that put the tying run in position for catcher Robinson Chirinos’ sacrifice fly.

Moustakas blasted Kansas City back in front in the seventh. Texas reliever Alex Claudio flipped three straight sliders. The third was doomed. The ballpark swallowed up two screams: The howl of the baseball as it raced into the right-field seats and the yelp of Claudio into his glove.

“If you see a breaking ball up in the zone, that’s the kind of pitch that you’re going to pull,” Moustakas said. “If your approach is right, and your bat path is right, it will pull itself. I was able to get the bat head out, and it ended up carrying out of the yard.”

Hochevar caught no breaks in the bottom of the frame. “Cowabunga, man,” he said afterward, a reference to the wild ride. Hochevar gave up four singles, all of them some version of a well-placed grounder, a broken-bat blooper or, the ultimate indignity, Blanks’ check-swing dunker into right field.

Blanks tied the game, but Kansas City kept firing. After Alcides Escobar and Moustakas singled in the ninth, Cain rolled a grounder to the right side of the infield to bring home Escobar. Holland had his save opportunity, the one that Beltre spoiled.

“Basically just made one bad pitch, to a good hitter,” Holland said. “In a situation where I know better than to do that.”

When Gordon homered, Holland calculated a few factors. He had pitched in three out of four days, so he figured he was likely unavailable for Wednesday. Kelvin Herrera returns from suspension that game. The bullpen had been taxed in recent days, and could use more rest. Holland had only thrown 14 pitches.

So when Eiland found him in the dugout, Holland was ready. He welcomed the challenge.

“It was a better idea for me to go out there and keep two guys fresh,” Holland said. “And we won the game. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 10:54 PM with the headline "Alex Gordon’s homer in 10th gives Royals a 7-6 win over Rangers."