Kansas City Royals blow lead by giving up nine runs in eighth and lose to Orioles
The Kansas City Royals built a five-run lead, All-Star catcher Salvador Perez smashed another home run and veteran starting pitcher Mike Minor turned in a very strong outing, but it all came apart at the seams in one inning.
Everything that could go wrong seemingly went wrong Wednesday night in a nine-run inning for the Baltimore Orioles that included 68 pitches thrown by three Royals relief pitchers, six hits, two walks, one error on a play where outfielders bumped into each other in pursuit of a fly ball and a home run.
The Royals took a five-run lead into that inning, but walked away after a 9-8 loss to the Orioles in front of an announced 4,965 in Oriole Park at Camden Yards. That attendance total marked the smallest in the history of the ballpark, excluding capacity-restricted games earlier in the season.
Perez hit home run No. 42 this season, and Andrew Benintendi went 3 for 5 with five RBIs, a double and a home run. Shortstop Nicky Lopez went 2 for 5 with a run scored and an RBI. Lopez extended his career-high on-base streak to 18 games. Whit Merrifield smacked his 33rd double and stole his American League-leading 40th base.
Minor pitched six scoreless innings. The left-hander didn’t walk a batter in a start for the sixth time this season, and he’s had back-to-back starts without a walk for the first time this season. He struck out three. He allowed five hits, all singles.
Orioles starting pitcher Matt Harvey, who pitched for the Royals last season, pitched six scoreless innings against the Royals in Kansas City in July. In that game, he held his former team to just three hits, all singles, and pitched to contact throughout his outing with only two strikeouts.
Wednesday, the Royals (62-77) got on the board early against Harvey after a Lopez single, advanced on a groundout and scored on Benintendi’s two-out RBI single lined into center field.
Merrifield manufactured a two-out run in the second after Edward Olivares got thrown out stealing second. Merrifield ripped a double to left field, stole third base and forced an errant throw from Orioles catcher Pedro Severino that allowed Merrifield to score on the play.
The Royals tacked on two more runs to their lead and chased Harvey in the fifth inning.
A leadoff single by Michael A. Taylor, a sacrifice bunt and a single by Merrifield put runners on the corners. Lopez doubled off the right-field wall to score Taylor and put runners on second and third with one out.
After the Orioles (45-93) intentionally walked Perez to load the bases, Benintendi’s grounder to first scored Merrifield from third. The throw went home, but sailed wide of the plate.
The Royals led 4-0 after five innings.
Perez’s 419-foot solo smash to center field made it 5-0 in the seventh.
Everything changed once the Orioles came to bat in the eighth. Relievers Joel Payamps, Josh Staumont and Jake Brentz gave up three runs apiece in the nine-run inning.
Orioles 32-year-old rookie pitcher Manny Barreda got the win in his MLB debut.
The finale of the four-game series will be on Thursday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:10 p.m. Central time. The pitching matchup will feature Royals right-hander Carlos Hernández (5-1, 3.57) against Orioles left-hander John Means (5-6, 3.47).
Means, who threw a no-hitter earlier this season, is an Olathe native and graduate of Gardner Edgerton High School.
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 9:59 PM.
