Posted on Sun, Jun. 22, 2008

If Jon Lester’s no-hitter could push the Royals into a 12-game freefall, what could winning the wildest game of the year do?

The Royals — previously owners of the American League’s worst offense — came back from a seven-run deficit against one of the game’s best pitchers, taking 20,499 fans on a 3-hour, 59-minute roller-coaster ride that ended in an 11-10 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium.

Exhale.

“This just shows you,” Royals outfielder David DeJesus said, “what inching your way, staying positive, relying on your teammates, it shows you where you can go.”

If not impossible, this one certainly seemed like Powerball odds. Giants starter Tim Lincecum entered the game 8-1 with a 2.21 ERA, going at least six innings in each previous start and never giving up more than four runs.

He lasted just five innings and gave up five runs against the Royals, who completed the second-biggest comeback in club history.

The Royals had 14 hits — 11 singles and three doubles — and all but four scored runs. They walked six times and saw 189 pitches from six different Giants pitchers.

The team that depends on starting pitching like fish depend on water won despite Kyle Davies getting only four outs and giving up five runs. By the time cleanup hitter José Guillen batted for the first time, the game was 49 minutes old and the Royals trailed by five.

“Every pitcher dreams of having that kind of no-decision,” Davies said.

Three key moments, in order:

•David DeJesus hit an RBI double in the third inning and then scored from second on a wild pitch by Lincecum, sliding hard into home and flipping Lincecum off his feet in the process. Those were the Royals’ first two runs, and the first sign that this would be anything other than a Giant tail-kicking.

•Mike Aviles roped a curveball to left field for a two-run double in the sixth. That made up for Aviles’ previous at-bat, when he struck out on a questionable checked-swing call. More important, his double tied the score at 10-10.

•Left-handed reliever Ron Mahay entered in the top of the seventh and calmed a game that previously had all the stability of an Anthrax song. Mahay needed just 25 pitches for two scoreless innings.

“That’s why we went to him,” manager Trey Hillman said. “I was going to go to him before we even tied it up. Just to keep the momentum, to keep them off the board.”

The Royals took the lead in the seventh when Joey Gathright — who said Sunday’s game held special significance because of a Negro Leagues tribute — flared a single to left field, scoring DeJesus.

Closer Joakim Soria then did his thing, preserving the one-run lead in the ninth. He’s saved the last four Royals wins in a span of five days.

There’s a Web site called Fan Graphs that keeps track of a team’s win expectancy percentage throughout each game. When the Giants’ John Bowker hit a three-run double against Yasuhiko Yabuta for a 10-3 lead in the fifth, the Royals had a 2.5 percent chance of winning.

“We’re not going to lie down,” Aviles said. “We’re not going to be just an easy win for other teams.”

Perhaps.

Just the day before, Guillen talked to The Star about how frustrating it was that the Royals seemed to give up a lot of late leads, as they did on Friday.

After Sunday’s game, DeJesus was among those who talked openly about how good it felt to be on this side of a comeback.

It doesn’t erase the five-run lead the Royals blew in the ninth inning against the Twins last month, or any of the 21 other leads they’ve lost this season. But it does give some balance.

Lester’s no-hitter was the beginning of what turned into the 12-game losing streak that buried the Royals in last place, and there are a lot of people who connect those dots.

So it would stand to reason that a win like this could have the opposite effect, and maybe spark the Royals in a good way.

Maybe?

“Could be,” DeJesus said. “I feel this game really showed us how good a team we are. If we play together, we can do a lot of things. Everybody on this team did something today to help us win.”

Then again …

“As you know and I know,” Mahay said, “every day’s different. So, no.”

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To reach Sam Mellinger, sports reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4365 or send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com