Sal Perez on Kansas City Royals’ 8th-inning collapse: I’ve never seen anything like it
All-Star catcher Salvador Perez, the leader and heart of the Kansas City Royals, did a lot of head shaking when searching unsuccessfully for answers to why Wednesday’s game quickly went sideways.
The Royals took a 5-0 lead into the eighth inning against the Orioles at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Kansas City grabbed an early lead and added to it, pitched well and seemed to be in the driver’s seat.
Then the Royals bullpen gave up a nine-run inning — six of the runs scoring with two outs. Perez was left shell-shocked after watching three pitchers allow three runs apiece, a critical fielding error and a home run that ultimately provided the margin of victory in a 9-8 loss.
Perez, who homered in the seventh inning, his 42nd of the season, caught the entire 68-pitch eighth inning.
“I’ve never seen something like that in my career,” Perez said. “I feel like I was there forever. I don’t know. Today’s game is kind of one of those games you’re not going to forget tomorrow. It’s going to take some days before you forget about tonight’s game.
“It’s something where I feel like they took the game out of my hands. I know it’s part of the game, but I’ve never seen something before like that.”
Three pitchers who collectively hadn’t allowed a run in more than 10 consecutive innings gave up nine in a single inning.
It started with Joel Payamps, a pitcher who’d just mowed down three batters in a row — all on strikeouts — in the seventh inning. In the eighth, the first three batters reached base on a walk and back-to-back hits.
The second hit, an Austin Hays RBI double off the center-field wall, turned the inning over to Josh Staumont with two runners on and no outs. Staumont walked the first batter he faced on a borderline pitch. Anthony Stantander followed with an RBI single to drive in the second run.
The first out of the inning, a pop-up to first base, didn’t come until the sixth batter. Pinch hitter Ramon Urias’s RBI single to right field pulled the Orioles within two runs at 5-3 and signaled the end of Staumont’s outing.
Left-hander Jake Brentz took over with the bases loaded and one out and struck out the first batter he faced. With two outs, he fell behind the next batter, former Royal Kelvin Gutierrez, 3-0.
Brentz threw a 3-0 fastball at 99 mph over the heart of the plate for strike one. Brentz had to go after Gutierrez with the bases occupied and Cedric Mullins, a .300 hitter with 27 home runs, waiting on deck.
Gutierrez smacked a 98 mph fastball over the inner half of the plate back up the middle for a game-tying two-run single.
“I fell behind Gutie and we were just trying to get back in the count,” Brentz said. “Bases loaded and I gave him a heater right down the middle. That’s really probably the only (at-bat) of the night that I’m kind of shaking my head about because I knew how to approach him. I just fell behind.”
The Royals still had a chance to get out of the inning with the score tied, and they should have.
Mullins hit a fly ball to right-center field. Hunter Dozier, who entered the game to replace Ryan O’Hearn in right field, had the ball in his sights, called for it and appeared to have it almost in his glove. But center fielder Edward Olivares had hustled towards the ball as well and bumped into Dozier, who had his head up and eyes on the ball as he lined up the catch.
“I think Olie tried to call it late,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “Doz was camped under it. Just one of those plays that didn’t go any at all like we wanted it to go.”
Dozier dropped the ball as a result of the contact and was charged with the error. Urias and Gutierrez scored to give the Orioles a 7-5 lead.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think that,” Brentz said when asked if he thought the fly ball would end the inning. “But I know that it’s a night game, it’s pretty dim here and our outfielders aren’t used to this stadium and that happens. It’s all a part of playing baseball. …
“You can’t point the finger at anybody. It’s just all around. If I had gotten Gutie on that at-bat, we wouldn’t have even had that issue. It’s all a part of the game.”
Not only did the error give the lead to the Orioles, but it also extended the inning and put Mullins on base.
The next batter, Ryan Mountcastle, pulled an 0-1 pitch down the left-field line for a two-run home run to cap the nine-run inning.
“Nights like tonight and that eighth inning, it doesn’t happen very often but it is a part of the game” Brentz said. “It definitely sucks. It’s a hard one to swallow. Really, all we can do is just put it behind us and learn from it and move on tomorrow night. But yeah, it sucks.”
Payamps had thrown 5 2/3 scoreless innings in his previous four outings prior to having struck out the side in the seventh inning.
Staumont came into the night not having allowed a hit or a walk in his previous three appearances.
Brentz had just marched his way through the most dangerous hitters in the Orioles lineup — All-Star leadoff man Mullins, Mountcastle and red-hot Hays — in a 1-2-3 inning in Monday’s series opener.
Every one of those runs in the eighth loomed large after Andrew Benintendi hit a three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning to make it a one-run game.
“You don’t lose sight of the things guys did well, but we make no question about the fact that it comes down to winning baseball,” Matheny said. “It comes down to wins and losses. That’s what we do. That’s what we’re paid to do.
“So to have one inning that gets away from us like that, our worst inning of the year, that’s hard to swallow.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 5:58 AM.
