Whit Merrifield crushes two-run walk-off homer as Royals down the Orioles

Whit Merrifield really wanted to savor the moment, and who can blame him?

Before Saturday night’s 5-4 Royals’ win over the Orioles, Merrifield had never hit a walk-off home run in his life. Not as a professional. Nor college, high school or middle school for that matter.

But with Brett Phillips on second base in the ninth inning and the Royals trailing 4-3, Merrifield turned on a 95 mph fastball from Orioles reliever Mychal Givens and drove the pitch to left-center field.

Phillips raised his arms in celebration as he ran toward third base, knowing the ball would land in the stands.

“If you go look back, I think I’m jumping up and down before it even got out,” Phillips said. “I was super pumped.”

First-base coach Mitch Maier, however, wasn’t so sure.

“I was trying to admire it a little bit,” Merrifield said, “and I got close to first and I kept hearing Mitch yelling, ‘run, run, run,’ because I don’t think he thought it would be a homer, so I didn’t quite get a chance to admire it.”

His teammates did, and they had formed a semi-circle around the plate awaiting Merrifield’s arrival with the game-winning run. As he approached them, Merrifield took off his batting helmet and flipped it over head toward the scrum.

Merrifield touched home and was enveloped in a group of joyous Royals.

“It was kind of an awkward celebration into home, so we’ll have to work on that, too,” Merrifield said. “Like anything else, you live and you learn and try to get better everyday, and I’ll try to get better at that.”

Things have been better for the Royals, 44-91, on this home stand as they’ve won six of seven and four straight.

Sure, the Orioles, 40-96, have had a rough season, too, but the Royals’ starting lineup Saturday featured five rookies, and the No. 2-9 hitters had played a combined 540 career major-league games.

Manager Ned Yost said the winning streak and second walk-off victory in eight days is a big boost for the young players.

“I think it gives us all confidence,” Yost said. “When the players have confidence, it gives us confidence. That’s part of the process to get them to believe in them as much as we do. But it’s a fun group to be around that doesn’t quit. They gain confidence daily.”

That includes starting pitcher Heath Fillmyer, who had a second consecutive solid outing, tying a career high with seven innings. He gave up two runs on nine hits and a walk and his six strikeouts also tied a career best.

Fillmyer wiggled out of some tough spots, none tighter than the second inning when the Orioles loaded the bases with consecutive singles. But after left fielder John Andreoli hit a sacrifice fly, Fillmyer got catcher Austin Wynns to hit into a double play to end the inning.

“The pitch (Wynns) rolled over on was a good location, and that’s where we wanted to attack him and have soft contact,” Fillmyer said. “Hopefully he’s gonna roll over and he did, which is great.”

In the fourth inning, shortstop Tim Beckham hit a solo homer to give the Orioles a 2-0 lead.

Phillips got that run back with a solo homer to left-center field in the bottom of the frame.

Two innings later, the Royals kept the line moving long enough to take the lead. First baseman Ryan O’Hearn led off with a walk and scored on a one-out double by Brian Goodwin. That tied the game, and Rosell Herrera’s single brought home Goodwin to give the Royals their first lead, 3-2.

Fillmyer worked through his only perfect inning in the seventh and turned the lead over to Jason Hammel. Baltimore’s Trey Mancini greeted Hammel with a game-tying homer and Tim Beckham’s one-out double scored Adam Jones, who had singled, and Baltimore went back ahead, 4-3.

In the bottom of the ninth, Phillips gave the Royals life when he drew a leadoff walk from Givens and moved to second on Cam Gallagher’s sacrifice bunt.

Merrifield stepped to the plate having struck out twice earlier in the game and grounded out with runners on second and third in the sixth inning.

“I wasn’t picking the ball up well all day really,” Merrifield said, “so that at-bat with (Mychal) Givens, who’s kind of funky and throws pretty hard, I was just trying to calm everything down to see the ball ...”

Merrifield swung through a pair of four-seam fastballs, then fouled off a pitch.

“I’d been late,” Merrifield said. “The first two I just missed and the third one I hit almost directly behind me, so I think he was trying to come up and in with the fastball and tried to blow it by me. I just tried to shorten up and see the ball and hit and got the barrel to it and it went out.”

As Merrifield watched the ball, which traveled 415 feet, Maier’s voice was in his head.

“Mitch was making sure I was going to be on second or third base when it hit off the wall,” Merrifield said, “so I’ll have to get on him a little bit.”

Merrifield smiled as he recalled the moment, and well, smiles have been in short supply for the Royals in 2018. But Merrifield hopes the recent stretch of success is predictive of what’s to come.

“These are the kind of guys we’re going to have moving forward, so to get that kind of confidence early is big,” Merrifield said. “I don’t think we had a bad team at the beginning of the year. We just kind of got behind the eight ball early and didn’t really get that momentum. We’ve got some stuff rolling right now, hope to get until the end of the year and keep it going.”

Royals 5, Orioles 4

This story was originally published September 1, 2018 at 9:31 PM.