Homers from Perez, Dozier and Isbel help Kansas City Royals overcome six-run deficit
The Kansas City Royals returned home after a little more than a week away and promptly fell behind by six runs by the time the top half of the third inning concluded.
Apparently, it was all part of setting up a big comeback and putting the spotlight back on their All-Star catcher.
Salvador Perez’s sixth-inning three-run home run Tuesday gave the Royals their first lead of the night and completed the comeback on their way to a 10-7 win against the Oakland Athletics in front of an announced 10,254 in the first game of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium.
“We never say that it’s over,” Perez said. “That’s why I like everything about my team and my teammates, because we’re going to compete to the last out. It doesn’t matter what’s the score in the first two or three innings. We still have six, seven more innings to compete in. Look what happened tonight.”
The Royals (66-78) overcame a six-run deficit for the second time this season, and they earned the 37th comeback win of the year.
They’ve gone 30-25 since the All-Star break, the sixth-best mark in the American League and the best in the AL Central.
Along with Perez, Hunter Dozier and Kyle Isbel (3 for 4, three runs scored, 2 RBIs) also hit home runs. Isbel’s was his first in the majors. Whit Merrifield, Nicky Lopez and Isbel each had three-hit games.
Royals starting pitcher Jackson Kowar didn’t record an out in the second inning before he yielded to the bullpen. He allowed five runs on three hits and four walks. Of the 39 pitches he threw, just 18 were strikes.
Kowar allowed the first two runners of the first inning to reach and score. A walk and a double set the Athletics up with runners on second and third with no outs. Matt Olson’s sacrifice fly scored a run and allowed the trail runner to advance to third. Jed Lowrie followed with another sacrifice fly to give the Athletics a 2-0 edge in the first inning.
In the second, Kowar’s command struggles led to three consecutive walks to start the inning. By the time the third batter walked to load the bases, the Royals had veteran right-hander Ervin Santana warming in the bullpen.
An RBI single by Elvis Andrus drove in the first run of the inning, and Josh Harrison’s two-run single gave the Athletics a 5-0 advantage and chased Kowar from the outing.
The Royals used six relief pitchers, including Santana and Joel Payamps for two innings apiece.
“[We were] just fighting to stay alive with our pitching and ended up getting really good outings from our bullpen, starting with Erv being able to pitch us out of a mess,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “That could have turned into a very ugly game early.”
The Royals’ deficit reached six runs in the third inning after a Mark Canha leadoff double, a wild pitch advanced him to third and a second wild pitch allowed him to score.
However, the Royals scored three runs in the bottom of the third RBI singles by Merrifield and Perez as well as an RBI fielder’s choice by Adalberto Mondesi.
“Everything was just blah at the beginning and it just didn’t feel right,” Matheny said. “It was just so atypical of everything that we’ve done this season where it’s energy and it’s contagious and you can feel it, you can sense it. I think it hit us right between the eyes that this isn’t us. Let’s figure something out.
“Now granted, you’ve got a good team, you’ve got a good starting pitcher, it was tracking to maybe keep us down for a little while. Then we started chipping away. The three-run inning, it changed it. It gave us an opportunity.”
Dozier’s solo homer in the fourth inning pulled them within two runs, 6-4, but the Athletics pushed the lead back to three in the fifth on Andrus’ RBI double.
The Royals scored four in the sixth to take the lead with the help of Perez’s three-run homer. Three consecutive singles by Isbel, Merrifield and Lopez set the table. Lopez’s single scored Isbel to make it a two-run game again.
Perez put them over the top with the homer to make it 8-7.
Isbel added on in the seventh when he wrapped a two-run homer around the right-field foul pole.
“It had me speechless,” Isbel said of his first homer. “There were a lot of different emotions going through my head. I’ve come a long way to get here, and I’m just happy. Happy I could help the team win.”
The series continues on Wednesday night with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 p.m. The pitching matchup features Royals left-hander Mike Minor (8-12, 5.05) against Athletics left-hander Sean Manaea (9-9, 3.79).
Manaea began his professional career with the Royals. A competitive balance round pick of the Royals in 2013, he went to the Athletics in the trade that brought Ben Zobrist to KC in 2015.
This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 11:17 PM.
