Whew! Kansas City Royals hold on for win at Kauffman after late push by Detroit Tigers
One night after the bullpen gave up the lead in a loss, one of the Kansas City Royals’ most reliable relievers this season put a lot of suspense into a seemingly comfortable advantage in the ninth inning.
Royals right-hander Josh Staumont gave up two runs in the top of the ninth Saturday, an inning that started with three consecutive hits, including a two-run home run, and a walk.
Staumont came into the game with a four-run lead, but those three hits out of the gate prompted Greg Holland to warm up in the bullpen for most of the final inning. After the two-run homer by Detroit Tigers leadoff man Robbie Grossman, the Tigers loaded the bases.
But Staumont struck out the final two batters of the game with the bases loaded, including a 100 mph heater on the final pitch to Willi Castro, to preserve a 7-5 win in front of an announced 14,226 at Kauffman Stadium.
“That was right to the limit, literally,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Staumont’s outing. “Beyond where we wanted to go pitch count-wise. I mean, he’s strong. He has had a couple days of rest. But that was his game once we kind of got into a mess. I think those are ones that we go back as a club and we’ll be better for in the long run. No fun going through them. Not how you design them.
“I think that last pitch was 100 miles an hour, so there’s still a lot in the tank there as far as the strength goes. It was just finding that good feel. … When you don’t have your great stuff (or) you don’t have your location, how are you going to get it done? He figured out how to get it done.”
The win set up a rubber match in the three-game series Sunday afternoon. The Royals (21-23) have now won five of their last eight games. Rain delayed the game’s start by one hour, 21 minutes.
Left fielder Andrew Benintendi went 2 for 3 with a walk, three RBIs and a run scored, while Carlos Santana went 2 for 4 with an RBI and two runs. Michael A. Taylor, Kelvin Gutierrez and Nicky Lopez also drove in runs.
Benintendi served as the offensive catalyst throughout the game. He had a hand in four of the seven runs and three of the five innings in which the Royals scored.
A trade acquisition late this winter from the Boston Red Sox, the left-handed hitting Benintendi is now batting .288 with a .349 on-base percentage.
After trying to turn himself into a power hitter and watching his batting average, OBP and overall approach at the plate suffer for it, Benintendi pledged to return to his previous form this winter and during spring training.
His first at-bat of Saturday’s game served as a great test of his resolve. He came to the plate with the bases loaded in the first inning.
Benintendi worked his way back from an 0-2 count to get to 2-2, then smacked a 93 mph sinker on the outer half of the plate into left field for a two-run single that came off the bat at 100 mph.
“I wasn’t trying to do too much, and I think it kind of comes down to me knowing myself as a player — like I’ve said before,” Benintendi said. “Obviously, for me I’d love to go up there and hit a grand slam. I think everybody would. But in this ballpark and myself that’s not going to happen most likely, so just try to put it somewhere in front of the outfielders and behind the infielders. Stick to line drives and hitting the ball hard. After that, you can’t control anything else.”
The Tigers’ answered Benintendi’s first-inning two-run single with Akil Baddoo’s two-run single on a soft liner into left field just past third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez and inside the foul line.
The Royals took the lead back in the fourth on Michael A. Taylor’s RBI double and a Nicky Lopez sacrifice fly to take a 4-2 advantage.
The Tigers answered again the next inning, but Singer managed to hold onto a one-run lead after the Tigers put runners on second and third and no outs in the top of the fifth.
In the bottom of the fifth, Benintendi’s RBI infield single scored Carlos Santana for the second time in the game.
They added a sixth run in the sixth on a Santana sacrifice fly to go up 6-3. In the seventh, Benintendi walked, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout.
“He takes a walk. He gets a great jump on a steal. Moves up on a wild pitch, and then maybe one of the best contact jumps I’ve seen at third base that we end up scoring a run without getting a base hit,” Matheny said of Benintendi. “That was want-to and will to make something happen.”
Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer allowed three runs on six hits and two walks. He also struck out six in 6 1/3 innings. The 6 1/3 innings matched his previous outing for his second-longest start of the season.
Royals starters have pitched into the seventh inning in four of the last six games. They’d previously gone that deep just three times in their first 38 games.
“Extremely important,” Singer said of getting into the seventh. “That’s something I try to do — when I don’t have my best stuff, just try to get deep into the ballgame. No matter what the score is, get deep in the ballgame, save some of the bullpen. I feel like I did a pretty good job of that. That just kind of comes back to competing no matter what’s going on.”
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 8:17 PM with the headline "Whew! Kansas City Royals hold on for win at Kauffman after late push by Detroit Tigers."
