Carlos Santana’s walk-off homer gives Kansas City Royals series win over Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals veteran first baseman and offseason free-agent addition Carlos Santana went to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with one thought in his mind: Win the game.
With the tying run already on base in the form of Whit Merrifield, Santana delivered when he smashed a 1-0 pitch 442 feet and over the center field wall for a walk-off two-run home run on a day when the KC offense struggled to scratch out much of anything.
After he rounded third base, Santana tossed his helmet high into the air in elation as teammates crowded around home plate to greet him in celebration of the Royals’ 3-2 win in the annual Salute to the Negro Leagues game.
One swing in front of an announced 15,540 at Kauffman Stadium drastically changed the complexion of the game and the weekend: The win gave the Royals (22-23) the series victory heading into Monday’s off-day.
“When I see Merrifield is on base, I’m thinking, ‘I want to win the game,’” Santana said.
The Royals had just three hits in the game heading into the ninth inning, but Merrifield’s infield single deflected off third baseman Jeimer Candelario brought Santana to the plate as the winning run. Santana had been 0 for 3 in the game before his final at-bat.
Santana’s game-ending blast pushed his career total to seven walk-off home runs, his first since Aug 12, 2019, against the Boston Red Sox.
“I know it’s a tough game. I know it’s a tough situation,” Santana said. “I’m not nervous. I’ve had that situation before. I tried to keep my body (calm), and focus.”
Salvador Perez went 2 for 3 and was the only Royal with a multi-hit game. Andrew Benintendi, Merrifield and Santana had the club’s only other hits.
“Carlos is just a special player,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We’re watching him just like we’ve talked and celebrated Salvy so much. Carlos is one of those guys, too, you want to see in those situations because they rise to those occasions.”
Matheny was not in the dugout to see the ending. He earned his second ejection of the season, the 18th of his managerial career, for arguing a call made with Merrifield at the plate in the sixth inning while the Royals were being shutout by Tigers right-hander Casey Mize.
Mize held the Royals to one run on three hits over 6 1/3 innings. He struck out six and issued only one walk.
The commotion came with one out after Merrifield got hit on the hand by a pitch. Instead of awarding Merrifield first base, home plate umpire Brian Gorman immediately deferred to first base umpire Adrian Johnson. Johnson ruled Merrifield had swung at the pitch. That made the pitch a strike against Merrifield and the at-bat continued.
Merrifield seemed to indicate he had turned his body trying to avoid the inside pitch, not in an effort to swing.
After checking on Merrifield with head trainer Nick Kenney, Matheny voiced his objection to Johnson’s call and took his objection to Johnson in a demonstrative face-to-face manner.
“He’s hurting and he’s got to go back into the box now on that subjective call, it’s frustrating,” Matheny said. “So I’m frustrated that he got hit. I’m frustrated that they didn’t, in my opinion, get the call right.
“I was glad, first of all, that Whit was okay and that he was able to stay.”
Royals starting pitcher Kris Bubic entered the day with a scoreless streak of 17 2/3 innings, including six scoreless in his only previous start of the season last week against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Tigers got to him for a pair of runs in the first inning on Sunday. Four of the first five batters of the day had hits. After knocking in the two runs, they loaded the bases with just one out. Bubic got Wilson Ramos to pop up and froze JaCoby Jones on a called third strike to escape the inning without further damage.
Bubic willed his way through five innings. He gave up two runs on six hits and three walks. He struck out three.
Mize kept the Royals bats quiet for the vast majority of the first six innings. The first hit came with two outs in the fourth inning on a Perez single that took an awkward hop, but Tigers shortstop Niko Goodrum also appeared to misplay the ball. The play was ruled a hit.
The Royals put two men on base that inning with Benintendi having drawn a two-out walk one batter before Perez. However, the inning ended with Benintendi thrown out attempting to advance to third on a pitch in the dirt.
Benintendi led the charge again in the seventh with a leadoff single. Perez followed and lined a single into left field. The Tigers got one out on Kelvin Gutierrez’s ground ball, but could not turn a double play.
Hanser Alberto’s pinch-hit sacrifice fly to right field scored Benintendi to make it a one-run game. Gutierrez, who had advanced to second on a wild pitch, tagged and advanced to third. Third base umpire Lance Barrett ruled Gutierrez came off the base while sliding into third base and was tagged out.
Replay review did not overturn the call. For the second time in the game, the Royals made the third out at third base.
Relief pitcher Kyle Zimmer, who returned Tuesday from a 17-day stint on the injured list, didn’t allow a hit in the final two innings to keep the Tigers within striking distance.
“It’s always fun to have the music playing after a close game,” Zimmer said. “To do it like that, going into the off day and take that momentum, hopefully, into this next week and especially to pick up the series W against a division opponent is awesome. To do it in that fashion really, I think, is a great lift for us as a ballclub.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2021 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Carlos Santana’s walk-off homer gives Kansas City Royals series win over Detroit Tigers."
