‘We needed that one’: The Royals needed a lift. Two unsung heroes came through
Reliever Taylor Clarke let out a rare roar as he left the mound.
First-base coach Damon Hollins shouted his own message on his walk to the clubhouse postgame: “We needed that one, baby.”
Then catcher and Royals captain Salvador Perez arrived and pandemonium ensued.
These are some of the scenes from a wild, at-times strange comeback win that was, as Hollins said, very much needed, given the way the Royals began the season.
Embarking on their first road series after a 1-6 home start, interim manager Paul Hoover suggested a change of scenery could do KC good, a message Hunter Dozier echoed in advance of Saturday’s game.
Neither knew what was ahead, a 6-5 comeback win over the Giants on Saturday to give the Royals (3-6) two straight wins.
“I felt like we kind of had no business winning that game,” Clarke said. “That just shows we’re never out of the fight no matter what.”
Trailing 4-0 before a Bobby Witt home run and 5-1 before Franmil Reyes added another, there had been little that suggested a comeback was on the way for Kansas City.
It happened one play at a time.
After Perez tied the game with a three-run blast in the eighth inning, the Royals almost immediately gave the lead right back. J.D. Davis singled, Joc Pederson followed and Mike Yastrzemski loaded the bases with no one out in the eighth.
Amidst the run of three straight Giants reaching, Hoover went to the mound to speak with his pitcher, but there was no thought, the interim manager said, of going to get him.
“Clarke, my God, you can’t say enough about what he did and how he was able to come through in that moment,” Hoover said. “What he did in that situation was really impressive.“
If there was a turning point in that sequence, it wasn’t the first out, which Clarke earned by striking out Thairo Estrada. Brandon Crawford was up next, and Clarke knew he had no margin for error with the bases juiced.
“It was kind of wild,” Clarke said. “Probably didn’t make some of the right pitch calls on my part with fastballs. I was like, ‘All right, I just need to start throwing more breaking balls and took it one pitch at a time.’”
The shift, Clarke said, came when he went to his “stuff that’s swing and miss,” which played into the aggressiveness of the Giants.
Clarke felt the momentum building with each strikeout, which led to the yell when he escaped the jam by striking out Blake Sabol.
“I’m pretty reserved,” Clarke said. “I think that took the team by surprise, but it was kind of fun. And I think they fed off that.”
He smiled.
“It’s in there,” Clarke continued. “I keep it kind of contained.”
The score, however, was only tied.
Vinnie Pasquantino, one of the heroes of Friday’s win, doubled to start the eighth, and the Royals called upon Nate Eaton to pinch run. He advanced to third on a groundout from Hunter Dozier.
“They’d been telling me for a few innings that I could possibly go in to pinch run, so I was doing whatever I could to get loose and get ready,” Eaton said. “(Dozier) hits a hard ball to third, and it was one of those you’ve got to read off the bat and go straight to third, because they can run up and tag you.”
Then came another break: a wild pitch.
Kyle Isbel was up with two out and Eaton at third. Camilo Doval delivered a wild pitch that was way inside — and would have hit Isbel if he didn’t dive out of the way.
“It was so close to hitting me I didn’t even think of Nate coming,” Isbel said.
“It was a quick ricochet,” Hoover added, “and luckily Eaton was on it.”
Eaton’s view? Acting third-base coach Jose Alguacil had told him to get as far as he could down the line and that he’d yell if Eaton need to run back. Eaton saw the ball go by and took off, not realizing in the moment it hit the padding behind home plate and, as Eaton would later describe, “got a good kick” back to the catcher.
“I honestly didn’t even see him dive for me,” Eaton said. “I was just (keeping my) eyes on home plate and doing whatever I could to get there quickly as possible.”
That was the go-ahead — and ultimately game-winning — run in a performance Isbel said was “huge” for the team. Other teammates echoed that thought, including Eaton, who used the same word to describe the win.
“It just shows that we’re fighting and we’re never out of the game,” Eaton said.
As for the Royals interim manager, there was a funny moment before the game when a reporter joked with Hoover that he could end the day with more wins than Matt Quatraro, who has been sidelined for the San Francisco series after testing positive for COVID-19.
“Don’t even talk about it,” Hoover quipped back with a smile. “Our team needs wins. ... You can manage it.”
After the game, which clinched KC’s first series victory of the year, Hoover was ready to expand on that thought.
“It’s just a big win, never mind the series,” Hoover said. “Just the resilient group we have in there to come back and to compete — and win.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2023 at 7:27 PM.
