Athletics offense too potent for Andrew Benintendi and Kansas City Royals to keep pace
One night after rallying from an early six-run deficit, the Kansas City Royals fell victim to a sustained offensive barrage from an Oakland Athletics ballclub that’s still trying to fight its way into the postseason.
Royals starting pitcher Carlos Hernández gave up seven runs in fewer than five innings, and the Athletics were just getting rolling. The Athletics collected 18 hits on the night, and the Royals dropped the second game of the three-game set 12-10 in front of an announced 11,056 at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Royals (66-79) had the tying run in scoring position and the go-ahead run on base in the ninth inning, but they couldn’t get over the hump. The teams will play a rubber match on Thursday afternoon.
“In those situations it’s kind of easy to fold, but we’ve just got to keep fighting back,” Royals outfielder Andrew Benintendi said. “We had a shot there at the end, so it’s all you can do at that point.”
Benintendi seemed to do everything he could to help the Royals attempt to keep pace. Benintendi went 5 for 5 with four RBIs, and Salvador Perez went 2 for 4 and hit his 44th home run of the season.
“I think I got lucky on a few of those hits, honestly,” Benintendi said. “It was kind of nice placement with the shift on three of them. The shift gives and it takes sometimes. I’m happy it was giving tonight.”
Perez moved within one of tying Hall of Famer Johnny Bench’s all-time single-season mark by a player who spent at least 75% of his time at catcher.
Carlos Santana, Hanser Alberto, Hunter Dozier and Edward Olivares had two hits apiece in the loss.
The Royals collected 17 hits and went 7 for 16 with runners in scoring position.
“We got into a tough spot and the guys just fought back to get to the point where you have those types of runs and hits by taking good at-bats all the way through, all the way to the end,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “... You can take the other side of that and when we give up as many runs and hits as we gave up, you certainly don’t even expect to be in that game and we were.”
The Royals used three pitchers just to get through the first five innings. Hernández gave way to Tyler Zuber, who gave up a run on two hits and a walk. He also allowed two runners inherited from Hernández to score.
Greg Holland entered the game and got an inning-ending double play to end the fifth.
The Royals trailed 5-4 entering the fifth inning and faced an 8-4 deficit after the top half. They scored a run in the fifth on Perez’s home run.
The Athletics (78-67) added four runs in the seventh, including one unearned run, against reliever Kyle Zimmer and pushed their total to 12 runs. The Royals trailed by as many seven runs, 12-5, after the top of the seventh.
All-Star leadoff hitter Whit Merrifield and Perez both came out of the game for the final two innings.
“Long season. Lot of games. They’ve played a lot,” Matheny said. “When we get a chance and a game gets to that point where we’re six or so runs down, I believe they’ve earned the right to be able to come off the field especially with a day game tomorrow.
“Let’s talk about the guys that came in and how they did a good job figuring out ways to make things happen. Put that energy in and help us get to a point where we got a game on our hands.”
Even without two of their top hitters in the lineup, the Royals scored three in the eighth and were within two runs in the ninth with the bases loaded when Ryan O’Hearn, batting in Perez’s spot, hit a ball back up the middle sharply that deflected off of Athletics reliever Andrew Chafin before Chafin quickly scooped up the ball and threw to first base to end the game.
Former Royals draft pick and minor-league pitcher Sean Manaea (10-9) made his 29th start of the season for the Athletics and allowed five runs on nine hits and a walk in five innings. He allowed Perez’s home run, and Manaea exited the game with the Athletics ahead 8-5.
Thursday afternoon’s series finale is set for first pitch at 1:10 p.m. CT. The pitching matchup will feature Royals left-hander Daniel Lynch (4-4, 5.37) and Athletics right-hander Paul Blackburn (0-2, 5.24).
This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 11:38 PM.
