Royals take advantage of extra-inning rule and Greg Holland gets 1st KC save in 5 years
In the second game of the pandemic-shortened season, the Kansas City Royals took advantage of Major League Baseball’s new extra-inning rules to earn their first win of the season.
The Royals walked away with a 3-2 win on the road against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on Saturday night on the strength of a run they scored without having a batter reach base. Maikel Franco’s sacrifice fly to deep center field drove in Brett Phillips with the eventual winning run.
In an effort to prevent painstakingly-long extra-inning games that exhaust bullpens and pitching staffs and often have ramifications for several subsequent days, MLB adopted a rule that had been used in the minors. Starting in the 10th inning, each team starts their turn at bat with a runner already on second base.
“I have been a proponent of it,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of the rule. “I know baseball traditionalists are rolling over right now, but mostly for the point of not having to take a pitcher too far. To be able to cover 17, 20 innings of baseball you’re pushing somebody who is probably going to get hurt or else you’re putting a position player in, which I don’t think is the kind of baseball people want to see.”
After Scott Barlow struck out Roberto Perez with the bases loaded on a full count in the bottom of the ninth, the Royals capitalized on their opportunity the next half inning.
Alex Gordon, who made the final out for the Royals’ in the ninth inning, was to be placed at second base. Phillips entered as a pinch runner for Gordon, and Erick Mejia pinch-hit for Ryan McBroom.
Mejia executed a perfectly-placed bunt that forced the third baseman to field the ball as Phillips advanced from second to third.
The next batter, Franco drove a 1-1 pitch from Indians relief pitcher James Karinchak to deep center field and Phillips tagged and scored.
“Mike Matheny made it known that he’s going to utilize the bench. That’s what he did,” said Phillips, who didn’t play in the season opener on Friday night. “Gotta give credit where credit is due. Erick Mejia coming up strong with a perfect sac bunt and then Franco doing the job.”
Phillips, who spent the majority of 2019 at Triple-A, had been in games where the runner at second had been used in extra innings.
He joked about getting placed on second base without having to bat, saying, “In my head, I hit a double off the wall and no one even wanted to throw it. I just cruised right in there to second base.”
In the bottom half of the 10th inning, Matheny called on former All-Star closer Greg Holland to start the inning with a runner on second base.
During his previous stint with the Royals, Holland became a two-time All-Star in 2013 and 2014. He also won the Mariano Rivera Award as the league’s top relief pitcher in 2014. He saved a combined 93 games with a 1.32 ERA during those two seasons.
On Saturday night, Holland was the last of four pitchers who combined for five scoreless innings out of the bullpen beginning with Ian Kennedy in the sixth inning.
“I think collectively there’s a lot of us down there who just kind of are hoping we get the ball with the game on the line,” Holland said. “After Ian got the call to go in the game, I was kind of ready from there.
“I don’t look at the numbers as much as Pedro (Grifol) and Cal (Eldred) and Mike (Matheny) do, so I don’t know the matchups. I don’t know if possibly I’m going to throw the sixth or the seventh or it ended up being the 10th tonight.”
Holland said he focuses on being mentally prepared by knowing what part of the opponent’s batting order he’ll likely face if he’s brought into the game.
Saturday night with a runner on second base, Holland hit the first batter he faced, Bradley Zimmer, with a pitch to put two men on with no outs. He struck out the next batter, Cesar Hernandez. Hernandez fouled off one bunt attempt, but did not make another attempt.
“It’s kind of one of those things where you’ve got to be ready for the bunt, but the main thing is just executing pitches,” Holland said “Worst case scenario, if I’m throwing good quality strikes and they do bunt — we get an out. Then we kind of go from there and play the inning however we have to.”
Holland struck out Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor, both swinging, to end the game.
“There’s just something about a guy who has been there and done that on that big stage of a major-league season,” Matheny said of Holland. “His back against the wall too starting with that man on second base.
“He’s just got so many things to teach the guys down in the pen. He has done such a good job behind the scenes. To watch him do it up on the stage too, it’s going to advance everybody down in that pen.”
This story was originally published July 26, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Royals take advantage of extra-inning rule and Greg Holland gets 1st KC save in 5 years."
