Kansas City Royals rally, but then fall to Astros in extra innings of series finale
The Kansas City Royals mounted a rally that included a seventh-inning grand slam on the road, but they couldn’t hold onto the lead.
The Royals bullpen gave up three runs in a 6-5 extra-inning loss to the Houston Astros on Wednesday afternoon in front of an announced 21,052 at Minute Maid Park.
The Royals lost the final two games of the three-game series but finished 4-3 in the season series between the clubs.
After the Royals (56-70) weren’t able to score in the top of the 10th, reliever Joel Payamps gave up a walk-off RBI groundout to Jake Meyers.
The comebacker from Meyers with runners on second and third appeared to hit Payamps on the leg or hip and caromed towards first base. Payamps scrambled to pick up the ball and flipped to first base.
However, the runner on third base broke for the plate and scored without a throw.
Royals veteran starting pitcher Mike Minor turned in his eighth quality start of the season and Whit Merrifield gave the Royals a 5-3 lead in the seventh with a grand slam, his first home run since June 29.
But the Astros scored runs against Domingo Tapia, Josh Staumont and Payamps to pull out the victory.
The Royals conclude their 10-game road trip with a four-game series in Seattle beginning on Thursday night. They’ve won four of six games on the trip thus far.
“Losses are losses, but it was great to see us figure something out,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “Obviously that was a big hit by Whit, giving us an opportunity to turn it over to the bullpen. Then we just had trouble getting some of the outs that we needed. Mike Minor did a good job keeping us in the game, keeping us close.”
Minor faced an Astros lineup bolstered by the additions of two-time All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman as well as starting outfielder Kyle Tucker, who entered the day batting .272 with 22 homers and 71 RBIs.
Bregman just returned from the injured list prior to Wednesday’s game. He’d missed 59 consecutive games.
Tucker, who did not play in the series between the teams in KC, returned from the COVID IL on Tuesday after having been sidelined since Aug. 14.
“I thought their lineup was a lot better today with just those two guys coming back,” Minor said. “I feel like they’re more of a dynamic lineup, or whatever you want to call it. Two guys coming in there that can hit for average and home runs. So you space those guys out, put them in there, plug them in and I feel like they’re a different offense.”
The game’s first three runs each came via solo home runs, two by the Astros and one for the Royals.
Astros catcher Martin Maldonado started the scoring with a third-inning homer.
Royals All-Star catcher Salvador Perez answered to start the fourth inning. He made Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. pay for not getting his 95-mph sinker down far enough. Perez crushed the 2-1 pitch over the left-field seating section.
It was his 34th home run of the season, moving Perez within three of Carlton Fisk’s AL record for home runs in a season by a catcher. Fisk established his mark of 37 homers in 1985.
The 1-1 tie lasted just until the bottom half of the inning. Astros left-handed hitting designated hitter Yordan Alvarez, the unanimous AL Rookie of the Year in 2019, jumped on a first-pitch fastball with one out and blasted his 26th homer of the season.
In the sixth, Bregman fouled off a pair of 3-2 pitches before he belted an RBI double off the wall in left-center field to make the score 3-1. Minor went six innings, allowing three runs on six hits and one walk, striking out three.
In the seventh, Merrifield jumped on a first-pitch fastball from reliever Cristian Javier, the first pitch after he entered the game in place of McCullers.
Michael A. Taylor (2 for 4) singled with two outs followed by walks by Emmanuel Rivera and Cam Gallagher to set the table for the grand slam. Merrifield’s last grand slam came against the Astros in Houston on May 7, 2019, the last time the Royals played a series at Minute Maid Park thanks to last year’s regional schedule in the pandemic-shortened season.
“I saw it pretty quickly out of his hand,” Merrifield said. “I just saw him, I think, my last-at bat of the series at our place. He threw me two fastballs I didn’t get to. I think I fouled one off and was late on one to right field. Both of those, I remember feeling like I was on.
“So I was just trying to be short, see it and be sure I got the barrel to it.”
Royals relievers pitched 14 2/3 scoreless innings through the first five games of the road trip, and they held opposing hitters to an .085 average (4-for-47) with four singles, three walks and 14 strikeouts.
But Tapia gave up a two-out single in the seventh, and Staumont’s run scored after he’d turned it over to Scott Barlow with two men on and two outs.
Michael Brantley, who entered the day with the second-best batting average in the AL (.314), smacked a pinch-hit RBI single to tie the score with two outs in the eighth. That set the game on a course for extra innings.
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 5:13 PM.
