By MATT PIKE
Maikel Garcia raced home on a game-ending wild pitch as the Kansas City Royals rallied for a 6-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Kauffman Stadium, snapping an eight-game losing streak.
Things didn't start off great for the Royals, falling behind early as the Orioles took a 3-0 lead in the second inning as Coby Mayo curled a 439-foot home run around the left field foul pole for his first of the season. In the bottom of the second, after Carter Jensen doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch, the Royals chipped away at the lead as Michael Massey hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Jensen to make it 3-1 as the end of two innings.
Kyle Isbel doubled twice among his three hits, snapping a 13 at-bat hitless streak, his first leading off the fifth inning. A single from Garcia scored Isbel, and after Garcia advanced to second on a ground out by Bobby Witt Jr, and stole third base, he later scored on the second sacrifice fly of the game, this time off the bat of Vinnie Pasquantino to tie the game 3-3 at the end of five innings.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Kansas City took its first lead of the game, Isbel hitting his second double of the game and advancing on a wild pitch, before scoring on the third sacrifice fly of the game from Bobby Witt Jr to take a 4-3 lead. The Orioles though struck in the eighth inning to steal the lead back, Adley Rutschman's first home run of the season driving in Gunnar Henderson after his one out double to give Baltimore a one run lead.
After the Orioles took the lead in the top half of the inning though, Massey led off the bottom of the inning with his first home run of the season, snapping reliever Rico Garcia’s hitless-innings streak at 11, and tying the game up at 5-5 on Massey's second RBI of the game. After blowing a save in last night's game, Lucas Erceg pitched a scoreless ninth giving Kansas City a chance to win the game
After Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr., drew walks to lead off the ninth, Vinnie Pasquantino struck out with runners advancing to second and third on Ryan Helsley’s wild pitch.Then, with Salvador Perez at-bat, Helsley uncorked his second wild pitch, a slider in the dirt that was blocked by catcher Rutschman, as Garcia sped past with the winning run.
Erceg earned the win, improving to 1-1 on the season, working around a leadoff ninth-inning walk for Kansas City’s first relief win since April 7th. Royals relievers suffered six losses during the losing streak while allowing six home runs and posting a 7.71 ERA. At the plate, Massey was 2-for-3 with a home run, a double, and two RBIs. Jensen was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring two runs.
Kansas City and Baltimore wrap up their series tomorrow. Michael Wacha (2-0, 1.00 ERA, 23K's) closes out the series for the Royals against Chris Bassitt (0-2, 6.19 ERA, 7K's) for the Orioles. First pitch will be joined at 1:10pm on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
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