Royals score three in bottom of the ninth, beat Nationals 7-6

By late Tuesday night, after the fog from the clubhouse after-party had cleared, after Lorenzo Cain had delivered a walk-off base hit in the bottom of the ninth, after the Royals had conjured the most cathartic comeback victory of this young season, Mike Moustakas emerged from a back hallway and sauntered back to his locker on the far side of the clubhouse.

It was nearly 35 minutes after the Royals had defeated the Washington Nationals 7-6 on at Kauffman Stadium, erasing a two-run deficit in the final inning, and Moustakas was still in full uniform, wearing his home whites with a backwards camouflage hat on his head.

He had just spent the last 20 minutes in the trainer’s room, receiving treatment on his swollen left thumb. He emerged with his hand wrapped in white gauze and sports wrap. His bruised hand had helped guide the way to a victory. His voice declared what everyone in this room felt.

“This is a big win,” Moustakas said, nodding his head.

Forty-five minutes earlier, Moustakas had struck a pinch-hit single up the middle off Washington closer Jonathan Papelbon, a two-run base hit that had tied the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the ninth.

Moustakas had not batted in two days after injuring his thumb during his first at-bat on Sunday in Seattle. He did not hit batting practice on Tuesday, opting to spend the afternoon getting more treatment on his hand.

But he had spent the ninth inning taking dry swings in the batting cage underneath the Royals’ dugout, and when he heard his name, he had come through in the moment, beating Papelbon on an 86 splitter.

“I just found a way to get the barrel to it,” Moustakas said.

Moments later, he had scored the winning run when Cain, mired in the worst slump of his career for much of April, roped a 91-mph fastball into the left-center gap.

Cain kept his eyes on the baseball the whole way, he said, waiting for it to hit grass. When it did, he flung his arms toward the sky, his teammates mobbing him in a mosh pit near second base.

“I’ve definitely been struggling — bad,” Cain said. “It definitely helps me out a little bit.”

Cain was talking about his wretched performance in April. He also could have been talking about his team over the last week.

Tuesday’s comeback rescued the Royals from their seventh loss in eight games. It stopped them from fading to .500 for the first time since April 5.

They now stand at 14-12 entering Wednesday’s series finale, and as the artificial fog sifted through the clubhouse on Tuesday night, they could revel in what they hope will be a momentum-building night.

For three of the previous four days, the Royals offense could not score. On Tuesday night, they came up with three runs in the bottom of the ninth.

“It’s gets some momentum going our way, gets us feeling good about ourselves again,” Moustakas said. “We never lack any confidence, but it’s always nice to win a ballgame. And in that fashion, it’s real nice.”

It was, in some ways, vintage Royals, the frenzied attack that carried them to a world championship last fall. They trailed 6-4 in the bottom of the ninth, after squandering a 3-1 lead earlier in the game. The rally began when Alex Gordon led off the inning by guiding a softly-hit single through the hole at shortstop.

In the dugout, Royals manager Ned Yost could hear the voice of Eric Hosmer.

“That’s how it starts,” Hosmer yelled. “That’s how it starts.”

Moments later, Salvador Perez drilled a single down the left-field line, sending Alex Gordon to third base. Terrance Gore pinch-ran for Perez and stole second on a close play at the bag. (“Terrible jump,” he said.) Omar Infante followed by striking out, and Yost opted for Moustakas, who pinch-hit for Christian Colon.

Moustakas singled to center. Alcides Escobar kept the inning alive with a two-out single. That brought Cain to the plate.

“It was a game-winning at-bat for us, in a lot of ways,” Yost said.

“Characteristic of our club,” said starting pitcher Chris Young, who allowed two runs in 4  2/3 innings.

The final inning rendered the rest of the night a series of forgotten footnotes. The Royals squandering a 3-1 lead? No issue. The defense breaking down in the sixth? No problem.

The specifics: With the Royals leading 3-2, reliever Luke Hochevar had opened the sixth inning by allowing two singles to center, sandwiched around an out to left field. On the second single, Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman sprinted first to third, and Cain had no throw.

That brought up Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, who skied a baseball toward the warning track in right. Either way, the game was about to be tied, but Dyson took a circuitous route to the ball and couldn’t come down with the baseball. The score was 3-3, and the Nationals suddenly had runners at second and third with one out. They would score both, taking a 5-3 lead into the seventh.

Hochevar had escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, coming on with two outs and inducing a grounder from Bryce Harper, last year’s National League MVP. But his first appearance since battling elbow tightness ended with him allowing three runs.

The Royals surrendered another run in the eighth, when reliever Dillon Gee gave up a homer to designated hitter Jayson Werth. The Royals scratched across another run in the eighth when Hosmer beat out a double play with runners at first and third.

For the second straight day, the Royals trotted out a lineup without Moustakas, who was resting a swollen thumb. The offense, which had gone scoreless in three of the last four games, still managed to put three runs in the bottom of the third.

Hosmer offered the most important hit, coming through with a two-out, two-run single that shot past Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy. For a moment, the Royals could forget about their woeful hitting with runners in scoring position — they began the night hovering just over .200 in those clutch situations. But then Roark settled in and retired 14 of the next 15 Royals hitters. He allowed four earned runs, departing with one out in the eighth.

The Nationals’ Anthony Rendon had opened the scoring against Royals starter Chris Young in the top of the first, clubbing a 411-foot homer over the Royals’ bullpen in left field. Rendon, the second batter of the game, saw six pitches as the count went full. He jumped on the seventh — an 89 mph fastball — and sent it soaring to deep left.

Young allowed another homer in the fourth, this time a no-doubt shot from Murphy that landed on the second deck of the party porch in right field. In his last two starts, Young has allowed just seven hits in 10 innings. But four of those balls have left the yard. In the end, it did not matter. By late on Tuesday night, Young stood in front of his locker. It felt like hours since he had stood on the mound.

“It’s a long season, so I don’t think any of us are worried about it,” Young said of the sluggish week. “We’re just not used to losing.”

For seven days, the Royals had lost six games and been shut out three times. On Tuesday, they pieced together a three-run rally in the ninth and procured a walk-off victory. For the Royals, it felt, well …normal.

“We’ve played a lot of games like that, and a lot of comeback wins,” Cain said. “Once Moose came through with that knock and tied the game up, we just felt like it was ours.”

Royals 7, Nationals 6

Two outs when winning run scored.

a-singled for Colon in the 9th. 1-ran for Perez in the 9th.

LOB: Washington 7, Kansas City 3. 2B: Zimmerman (6), Ramos 2 (6). 3B: Heisey (1). HR: Rendon (1), off Young; Murphy (3), off Young; Werth (5), off Gee. RBIs: Rendon (2), Murphy (14), Werth (14), Ramos (9), Espinosa (10), Heisey (4), Escobar (7), Cain (10), Hosmer 3 (12), Moustakas 2 (13). SB: Escobar (7), Gore (2). S: Dyson.

Runners left in scoring position: Washington 5 (Harper 2, Taylor 2, Murphy); Kansas City 1 (Cain). RISP: Washington 2 for 11; Kansas City 5 for 10. Runners moved up: Espinosa, Colon. GIDP: Cain. DP: Washington 1 (Espinosa, Murphy, Zimmerman).

Hold: Rivero (3). Inherited runners-scored: Rivero 2-1, Hochevar 3-0, Soria 1-0. PB: Ramos (1).

Umpires: Home, Fieldin Culbreth; First, CB Bucknor; Second, Jim Reynolds; Third, Manny Gonzalez. Time: 3:05. Attendance: 33,729.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 10:43 PM with the headline "Royals score three in bottom of the ninth, beat Nationals 7-6."