Kansas City Royals rally to force extra innings, but lose on Mariners’ walk-off single
The Kansas City Royals took another gut-punch on Sunday, the second time in less than 24 hours they rallied late to take a lead only to see it slip away in the end.
This time, the Royals needed the late-inning heroics just to extend the game. Hunter Dozier provided the clutch hit in the ninth inning in the form of a game-tying solo home run, his third homer in the past seven games, to force extra innings.
Then, in extra innings, Andrew Benintendi came off the bench with a clutch pinch-hit RBI single to give the Royals a lead. But they couldn’t hold off the Seattle Mariners late and ultimately succumbed to a Jesse Winker walk-off RBI single for a 5-4 loss in 12 innings in front of an announced 28,548 assembled for the finale of a three-game series at T-Mobile Park on Sunday.
“After Dozier’s homer, it would have been great to win that one,” Royals infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield said. “But we didn’t do enough to win. It is what it is.”
The Royals (5-9) were swept in a series for the first time this season.
Saturday night, they rallied from a four-run deficit to take the lead in the seventh inning before suffering a six-run loss.
“That’s a couple hard ones in a row, and they compound,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “But they came out ready to play today. You could see, gave up a couple early and got back into it, kept fighting, staying in the game. Big homer with Doz giving us a chance. We did a lot of things right. We missed some opportunities today too.”
With the Royals trailing by a run and down to their final two outs in the ninth inning, Dozier belted a 1-0 pitch from Mariners reliever Drew Steckenrider 419 feet to straightaway center field to tie the game.
The Royals hadn’t scored since the third inning, when Dozier tied the score 3-3.
“We’re fighting,” Dozier said. “We’re playing good baseball. Just, we’re kind of on the other end of it right now. But we’re playing hard. The effort is there. I think we’re doing the right things, just missing an opportunity to maybe get that run in.”
In the 10th inning, with the automatic runner placed at second base, Benintendi came off the bench and smacked an RBI single into right field that gave the Royals a one-run lead.
Benintendi and Nicky Lopez were both given the day off against left-handed Mariners starting pitcher Robbie Ray. Both were eventually inserted into the game, which saw every position player on the roster make at least one plate appearance.
Benintendi had been on deck ready to pinch-hit in the ninth, but the inning ended before he got the chance. He led off the 10th.
“My approach there was just to get him to third base, pull something on the ground,” Benintendi said. “If it doesn’t get through, great. If it does, even better. I was glad that it went through.”
After his RBI single, he got thrown out trying to go first-to-third on Lopez’s single to right field with one out. Benintendi had to hesitate slightly on the basepaths to avoid making contact with the ball.
“One out there, a one-run lead with Sal [Perez] coming up -- I was trying to get to third base,” Benintendi said. “They made a good throw. Bang-bang play. So tip the cap.”
The Mariners matched the Royals’ run in the bottom of the 10th on a Winker sacrifice fly that capped an 11-pitch battle with reliever Taylor Clarke. Winker fouled off six pitches before getting the fly ball to center field. Gold Glove-winning center fielder Michael A. Taylor’s throw to the plate was slightly up the third base line.
Neither team scored in the 11th, though the Mariners seemed poised to take advantage of some erratic command from Dylan Coleman.
Coleman walked two batters, one intentionally, but also allowed the potential winning run to advance to third base on a wild pitch that went to the backstop in the air. However, he got an inning-ending ground ball to second base with the bases loaded to extend the game to the 12th.
The Royals then loaded the bases in the top of the 12th, with the automatic runner as well as walks by Taylor and pinch-hitter Ryan O’Hearn. Merrifield and Lopez struck out to leave the bases loaded.
“It goes back to earlier in the game,” Matheny said. “We had other situations just like that. With a man on third and less than two outs, we’ve got to get it done. Those guys are out there fighting for their lives (too).
“We let a couple off the hook, but they let us off the hook a couple times too. We’ve just got to figure out how we can get that big hit, how we can grind through some at-bats to get those runners in, in scoring position. For the most part, we did a lot of things right too. We just couldn’t get the big one when we needed it late.”
The Royals went 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position.
“Baseball is a hard game,” Merrifield said. “If we can keep putting ourselves in positions to win games, I think we’ll be in good shape. Today just wasn’t meant to be for us, but we put ourselves in position to win. If we keep doing that, I think we’ll be pretty happy with where we’re at at the end of the year.”
Royals starting pitcher Carlos Hernández bounced back from giving up two runs on the first three pitches of the game to hold the Mariners to three runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out four.
Salvador Perez, who left Saturday night’s game after getting hit on the hand by a pitch, returned to the lineup as the Royals’ designated hitter. He went 2 for 5 with two doubles and an RBI.
Cam Gallagher started at catcher and went 1 for 3 with a double and an RBI.
The Royals have a scheduled day off Monday and then begin a three-game series against the AL Central-rival Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.
This story was originally published April 24, 2022 at 7:31 PM.
