Ben Zobrist homers twice, Royals outlast Blue Jays 7-6

Kansas City clung to a one-run lead when the bottom of Saturday’s ninth inning start, and manager Ned Yost counted up the batters due up before Toronto third baseman Josh Donaldson. The number was four, four batters before Donaldson, a one-man wrecking machine these past three days, could hit. Yost told anyone within earshot that he just needed closer Greg Holland to finish the job in four batters or less.

Baseball often disrupts well-laid plans. And so it was that in the final at-bat of this white-knuckled afternoon, Holland faced Donaldson with two on, two out and the tying run at third base.

“Greg does not panic in those situations,” Yost said. “He continues to make good pitches.”

The last was an 86-mph slider that accomplished what so few Royals pitches to Donaldson have done this weekend: It missed his barrel. Donaldson chopped a grounder to third baseman Mike Moustakas, and the Royals snapped a three-game losing streak with a 7-6 victory over Toronto.

The nine innings lasted only two hours and 30 minutes, but they were draining. Kansas City, 62-41, rallied from a four-run deficit. Ben Zobrist homered from both sides of the plate for the first time since April 13, 2014. A two-run lead fell to just one in the eighth, when Wade Davis gave up his first home run since Aug. 24, 2013, a streak of 125 2/3 innings thwarted by a solo shot from Jose Bautista.

“We had to have this one today,” Yost said. “I mean, we had to.”

That was Bautista’s second homer of the game. He had already gone deep in the fifth, moments after Donaldson crushed a two-run homer off Yordano Ventura. Instead of imploding, Ventura recovered to complete seven frames. He gave up five runs, but lasted long enough to protect his bullpen and keep his offense within reach.

The comeback started in the sixth. Up to that point, veteran southpaw Mark Buehrle had flummoxed Kansas City. He gave up two hits in the first five frames, a solo homer to Ben Zobrist in the first and a single by Alcides Escobar in the third. But in the sixth, down four runs, their bats came alive.

“It’s good to see that nobody panics,” Zobrist said. “And it’s good to see that nobody gets outside of themselves when you’re down four runs, or whatever. You just see the resilience, the steadiness.”

After Buehrle fumbled a grounder by Escobar, Zobrist doubled into right, where Bautista dived and missed the catch. Buehrle hit Lorenzo Cain with a pitch, so the bases were loaded when Eric Hosmer shot a single through the right side.

Two runs scored. A third came home when Kendrys Morales dropped a single into right. Zobrist would come through two innings later.

Buehrle exited for the eighth. Mark Lowe replaced him, and proceeded to throw a succession of sliders to Zobrist. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Zobrist roped a slider down the right-field line.

“That was a tough pitch,” Zobrist said. “I just snuck the barrel out there and was able to sneak it down the line. You never are trying to do that in those situations. I was just trying to put a good swing on the ball, and fortunately it went out.”

Soon after, Cain doubled and Hosmer singled him home. A sacrifice fly by Salvador Perez provided an extra run. And the Royals would need it.

In the bottom of the frame, Davis returned to action after missing Friday due to back stiffness. The first batter was Bautista. He vaporized a 97-mph fastball over the center-field fence. The next batter, Edwin Encarnacion, flied out to the wall.

Inside the Kansas City dugout, Yost had to laugh. The ability of the Blue Jays in this park was frightening.

“These guys are hotter than heck, and their power is amazing,” Yost said. “I mean, when they get a pitch, they don’t miss it.”

That knowledge makes Ventura’s performance look more impressive. He looked indomitable at the outset. His command was not pristine, but he still forced the Blue Jays to make waves of weak contact. He retired the first 11 batters in he faced.

With two outs in the fourth, Ventura slopped a curveball over the middle. Bautista rifled it to right for a single. Edwin Encarnacion singled off a thigh-high fastball. Justin Smoak cracked a flat change-up into right field soon after. The liner sunk at the feet of outfielder Alex Rios, who froze at the crack of the bat.

Smoak’s hit tied the game. Dioner Navarro unleashed a fourth consecutive rocket, this one another single to right, to put Toronto ahead.

“You saw what happened when he made a mistake,” said Edinson Volquez, who translated for Ventura. “That’s a tough lineup.”

The Blue Jays piled on in the fifth. Ventura committed a cardinal sin against this ferocious lineup: He walked No. 9 hitter Ryan Goins. That placed a man on base two batters later when Donaldson came to the plate.

Ventura tried to fire a 96-mph fastball through the inner half of the strike zone. He had picked up a pair of groundouts in his first two duels with Donaldson. The third time proved a charm for the hitter. He blasted the two-run shot out to left field.

One pitch later, Ventura hung a curveball to Bautista. Ventura never even turned to look as the baseball raced over the fence.

“He made a couple mistakes up,” Volquez said. “And they hit them pretty good.”

Yet the Royals still rallied for the ninth. They turned to Holland. With one out, Troy Tulowitzki entered the game as a pinch-hitter. The crowd hung on each pitch as Tulowitzki earned a 10-pitch walk. A single by another pinch hitter, Chris Colabello, meant Donaldson would almost certainly bat.

Holland induced a groundball off Ben Revere’s bat. Then he dueled with Donaldson. He was able to execute his pitches, a simple solution to a problem that is difficult to solve.

“I never really have gotten into ‘This is a huge win for us,’ because I don’t like to get high or too low,” Holland said. “But they came out and had that big fifth inning, and you’re staring at the barrel of losing three straight. And we had early leads in all three.

“Ace goes out there and gives us two more shutout (innings), which helped our bullpen out tremendously. And we get a couple big hits, get back in the game. That shows a lot of character in this team.”

Royals 7, Blue Jays 6

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a-was hit by a pitch for Cuthbert in the 9th. b-walked for Kawasaki in the 9th. c-singled for Goins in the 9th.

1-ran for K.Morales in the 8th.

E: Buehrle (2). LOB: Kansas City 3, Toronto 5. 2B: Zobrist (21), L.Cain (24). HR: Zobrist (7), off Buehrle; Zobrist (8), off Lowe; Donaldson (26), off Ventura; Bautista (22), off Ventura; Bautista (23), off W.Davis. RBIs: Zobrist 2 (37), Hosmer 3 (58), K.Morales (73), S.Perez (43), Donaldson 2 (75), Bautista 2 (70), Smoak (29), D.Navarro (14). CS: J.Dyson (2). SF: S.Perez.

Runners left in scoring position: Kansas City 1 (S.Perez); Toronto 2 (Pillar, Donaldson). RISP: Kansas City 3 for 4; Toronto 2 for 5. GIDP: S.Perez. DP: Toronto 1 (Kawasaki, Goins, Smoak).

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Blown saves: Lowe (3). Holds: W.Davis (16). HBP: by Buehrle (L.Cain), by Hendriks (Moustakas).

Umpires: Home, Scott Barry; First, Jim Wolf; Second, Toby Basner; Third, Angel Hernandez. Time: 2:30. Att: 37,932.

AP-WF-08-01-15 1943GMT

This story was originally published August 1, 2015 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Ben Zobrist homers twice, Royals outlast Blue Jays 7-6."