KANSAS CITY, Mo. — His arms angled toward the sky the same way they had in the American League wild-card game in September 2014. As the Royals’ players hopped up out of the dugout, ready to storm the field after the most relentless Royals performance in years, Salvador Perez, arms still flailing, tugged off his helmet and flipped it into the night.
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Arriving at first base, Perez pounded his chest and yelled, words drowned out by the jubilation of the bundled-up fans still in attendance. Meanwhile, Royals shortstop Nicky Lopez, who had been standing on third, tapped his foot on home plate and beelined toward Perez. The whole team gathered around him. Jumping. Tapping his head.
Celebrating like Little Leaguers would.
This was the culmination of a nine-inning thriller, a showcase of fighting that the Royals’ opponent, the Tampa Bay Rays, knows well. These types of games carried them to the American League title in 2020. These types of games kept them in the World Series. Now they were on the other end of this type of win on Wednesday night, a 9-8 come-from-behind Kansas City victory, which had the Royals high-fiving each other as they headed in toward the dugout.
Manager Mike Matheny could only think to say one thing to his players: “I love this team.” Perez, on the other hand, after the gathering of teammates dispersed, and after his heart rate drifted back down towards that of a human being, added to Matheny’s thought by saying, “We don’t stop fighting.”
If there’s one theme that defines these AL Central-leading Royals (10-7) through 17 games, it’s exactly that: a certain will, regardless of circumstance. Ten times have Major League Baseball teams come from four runs down and won games this year. The Royals alone have tallied three of those comebacks. On Opening Day against the Texas Rangers, the Royals trailed 5-0 in the first inning. They stormed back and won 14-10. Two days later, again against the Rangers, the Royals trailed by four runs and marched back with authority, winning 11-4.
But this one, which had Matheny’s head spinning so much afterward that he plopped down into a chair and laughed, was altogether different. And to understand what it meant — yes, what one game in April meant in a season of 162 — you have to understand what had happened in the days prior.
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The Royals entered Monday’s series-opening game against the Rays in first place and at 9-5, their second-best record through 14 games in a decade. They’d pitched well in a series against the Los Angeles Angels and they out-disciplined the Toronto Blue Jays. Then, as if similar to the movie “Like Mike,” the shoes had pulled. Beginning Monday, the Royals’ defense began to struggle mightily. Carlos Santana, who had two weeks earlier saved a game defensively at first base, dropped a popup in the fifth inning, ruining another solid outing by lefty starter Danny Duffy. A couple of innings later, All-Star second baseman Whit Merrifield botched an attempted throw to second for a double play. The Rays won the game, 4-1.
Attempting to avoid losing a series for the first time in 2021, Brad Keller stepped on the mound for the second game. Two weak-contact hits put him in somewhat of a bind, then Merrifield booted a ball at second. The Rays scored first, a snapshot of what would happen the rest of the game. Merrifield attempted to turn a double play in the second inning, but the Royals were shifted, so Merrifield’s flip to Lopez wasn’t close. Keller’s pitch count ballooned because of it, and the Royals pulled him, taxing the bullpen. Later in the game, Royals left fielder Andrew Benintendi attempted a throw to second that sailed over his head. The optics were bad, bad enough that Merrifield spoke to reporters Wednesday afternoon to say, “Just bluntly, it’s been pretty embarrassing.”
All of which set the stage for Wednesday night’s game. Asked about its importance before the contest, especially with how successful the homestand had been, Matheny laughed.
“It makes for a good storyline,” Matheny said. “So run with it.”
He was joking. You could see the smile, him sitting in his office in the bowels of Kauffman Stadium. Yet he wasn’t done.
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“In here,” he said, “we’ve got a game to win. And it’s just as important as Opening Day, just as important as the end of September.”
This has been Matheny’s mindset since he became the Royals’ manager, and there’s the reasoning behind it: Each game matters the same; don’t treat any one game differently; compete relentlessly and aggressively. All of it makes clear sense, but even he would admit, with what would come, how important this game would be.
It did not start well. Royals starter Jakob Junis’ control was off in the first inning. The Rays whacked him around for four runs. The Royals were set down in order in the bottom of the first, then the Rays came back out and outfielder Brett Phillips, the former Royals outfielder, singled off Junis to begin the inning. Even Junis knew his role at the time: eat innings, especially with how short the club was in the bullpen after the night before. He struck out the next batter and emerged unscathed in the second. The Royals’ offense struck in the bottom half.
Royals designated hitter Jorge Soler entered the game with a .559 OPS but singled in his first at-bat. Royals third baseman Hunter Dozier then stepped into the batter’s box. He’d brought an even worse .362 OPS into the game, but it didn’t matter as he lasered a ball into the left-field bullpen for a two-run home run. The Royals cut the Rays’ lead to 4-2.
Junis continued to pitch and give the Royals opportunities. Again in the fourth Soler took advantage, swatting a ball over the left-field wall for a solo shot, slicing the lead to one run. The Rays, of course, had been through this before. They’d played knock-down, drag-outs, acting like the boxer who keeps working the body. You attempt to swing a haymaker, they dodge it and continue to pepper you, time and time again. They scored again in the fifth inning, Rays third baseman Joey Wendle driving in left fielder Austin Meadows with a sacrifice fly to left, pushing the lead to 5-3. An inning later, in the bottom of the sixth, the Royals’ middle of the order was due up.
Santana, who had put together four multi-hit games in a row before the night began, smoothly uncorked his hips, hitting the ball 103.6 mph toward right field. The Rays, defensive savants it seemed, tracked it down. Perez was next. He lifted a ball toward right field and thought it hit the railing beyond the wall for a home run. It did not. Instead, it bounced from the green pad on the top of the wall back in play. Perez, trotting around the bases as this happened, was tagged out. Soler smashed one in the very next at-bat toward the green pad on the top of the wall in left-center. Unlike Perez, he raced out of the box. The double, though, didn’t lead to any runs. Kauffman Stadium, frigid as it’s been these last few days, was quiet.
Because they’re the Rays, a team tougher than a cheap steak, they tacked on another run in the seventh and led, 6-3. The game seemed destined for a runaway win until Royals outfielders Benintendi and Michael A. Taylor got on base in the bottom of the seventh. Rather than roll with outfielder Kyle Isbel in this spot against Rays lefty Jeffrey Springs, the Royals pinch hit with Hanser Alberto, whom first base coach Rusty Kuntz said is like “a Tasmanian devil” with his energy.
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This showed on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. He crushed a ball toward the swaths of green grass in right-center and galloped toward third as the two runners scored. The Royals cut the Rays’ lead to 6-5. Three batters later, with Merrifield standing on first base, Santana sent a ball into the night toward right field. The two-run home run gave the Royals the lead.
If you were surprised when the Rays snagged the lead back in the eighth — they pinch hit with outfielder Randy Arozarena, who scored outfielder Kevin Kiermaier — you haven’t been paying attention. The body shot landed. They tied the game, 7-7, then scored the go-ahead run in the ninth; after Meadows had singled, Wendle poked a double to left field.
And so here the Royals found themselves in the bottom of the ninth inning, having poured in everything they had. This was a fight unlike the other 16 in 2021. They believed in their preparation, going back to the offseason acquisitions, back to the Cactus League title in spring training, but here’s where it counted, and Taylor, who stood in the box first, seemed to know. He dropped a single into right field, and though he’s one of the premier runners in the game, only a few are better base stealers than Jarrod Dyson.
Speed can only do so much. Smarts matter, too. And Dyson showed why, stealing second with Alberto at the plate and no outs. Sensing an opportunity to at least tie, Alberto bunted Dyson over to third. Lopez was next at the dish. If there was a time for aggression, it was now, and the Royals rolled with that thought, putting on the safety squeeze. Lopez laid down a perfect bunt, and Dyson came swooping in to tie the game, 8-8.
By now you know it did not end there. Two batters later, Perez, who might be the one guy you’d want in that spot if you had to choose any Royals player in the past two decades, laced a slider past Wendle at third base. The hands shot up similar to the way they did against the Oakland Athletics so many years ago. The helmet was flung. The celebration commenced.
The Royals had done to the Tampa Bay Rays what the Rays did to become the successful team they are. It’s one game and only one game. But it’s also more. It’s a snapshot of love. Of fight. Of a team that Matheny, who has been around title-contending teams, said postgame “just believes.”
(Photo: Jay Biggerstaff / USA Today)
