Royals fight through Alex Gordon injury to beat Rays 9-7

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The delay lasted more than three minutes, with a three-time All-Star left fielder laying flat on the Kauffman Stadium warning track, his mobility hampered by a left groin strain.

A fourth-inning play that could shape the Royals’ season — or at least the foreseeable future — finished with Alex Gordon sitting on the back of a cart, riding through the visitor’s bullpen and into the bowels of the stadium.

As the crowd of 28,204 fans succumbed to an eerie silence, a handful of Gordon’s teammates stood on the field, nearly motionless and expressionless.

And then they marched on without him.

The Royals captured their fourth straight victory Wednesday, knocking around newly-minted All-Star pitcher Chris Archer and hanging on late for a 9-7 triumph against the Rays. They can sweep the four-game series Thursday.

The Royals led 9-3 — and 9-4 entering the ninth — before the Rays brought the go-ahead run the plate in the ninth. Greg Holland struck out Grady Sizemore with the tying run on second base to seal the win.

A game that included a pair of inside-the-park home runs — one per side — was largely overshadowed by Gordon’s departure, which occurred after he attempted to chase down a fly ball in the fourth inning.

An MRI was scheduled for late Wednesday to determine the severity of Gordon’s strain.

Gordon’s right leg had ticked like a metronome, up and down, up and down, into the dirt of the warning track. The pain from the strained groin muscles in Gordon’s left leg left him face down, unable to rise. He lay horizontal for 3 minutes and 8 seconds. Then a cart arrived to carry him off the field.

The training staff helped Gordon to his feet. He could not place weight on his left leg. Royals manager Ned Yost leaned in to speak with him. Aboard the cart, Gordon draped a towel over his head. The crowd managed only a tepid ovation – there went the Gold Glove cornerstone of the organization, the All-Star face of the franchise, the longest-tenured Royal.

A battery of tests awaited Gordon. A preliminary examination revealed the strained groin, an injury that could require anything from a brief respite to a two-month layoff after surgery. Gordon was scheduled to undergo an MRI to reveal the severity of the strain.

The ramifications of a serious injury extend beyond the immediate loss of Kansas City’s hottest hitter. Gordon can become a free agent at the end of the season. He holds a player option for 2016, but rival executives expect him to decline it and test the open market.

If Gordon requires an extended stay on the disabled list, the Royals could be forced to explore options in trades.

The sequence began when Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie floated a cutter over the middle of the plate to Logan Forsythe. Gordon swiveled his hips toward center field and sprinted to the warning track.

The baseball cleared Gordon’s glove. He took two steps on the track. On the second, his left leg buckled as he decelerated. He lunged chest-first into the scoreboard along the wall. Gordon landed on his chest, ripped off his glove and stayed motionless, save for his right foot kicking the dirt.

As he remained in the ground, Forsythe circled the bases for an inside-the-park-home run to tie the game at 2. The next four Rays hitters reached base, resulting in a one-run advantage.

It was short-lived.

A lineup that welcomed the return of its No. 3 hitter, Lorenzo Cain, dinged Archer for a five-run fifth inning, and it supplied all of the damage with two outs.

After sitting out Tuesday’s doubleheader sweep to rest his legs, Cain returned to the lineup with three hits, the second of which scored third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert to tie the game in the fifth.

Eric Hosmer followed that with a single to score Alcides Escobar. Kendrys Morales shot a double off the center-field wall to score two more. Salvador Perez put the finishing touches on the rally with a single to right field to score Morales.

Cain drove in three runs and hit his seventh home run when he drilled a line drive over the center-field wall in the third inning.

In sum, it ignited the seventh victory for Guthrie, who threw six innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits and four walks. Guthrie walked the bases loaded in the opening frame — and threw 30 pitches in the process — before coaxing an inning-ending lineout from David DeJesus. He bounced back to pitch into the seventh inning before giving way to the bullpen.

His counterpart, on the other hand, couldn’t find his footing.

As part of his four-hit night, Escobar fueled a sour start to Archer’s outing when he pegged Archer in the right leg with a comebacker to lead off the first inning. Escobar later tagged him again in the fifth inning.

In his final presentation before his first All-Star Game appearance, Archer, 26, yielded a season-high nine runs and 12 hits, watching his ERA balloon from 2.18 to 2.74.

Escobar was only part of his problem.

Jarrod Dyson, who replaced Gordon in the fourth, punctuated the offensive output with a two-run inside-the-park home run in the sixth inning after his looper to left field snuck by DeJesus and rolled to the track. Dyson’s first home run marked the first MLB game since 1997 to feature inside-the-park home runs by both teams.

It was an eventful night for Dyson. He also gunned down Rays outfielder Brandon Guyer at the plate.

That came only moments after he replaced Gordon in the outfield — a replacement the Royals, of course, never planned to make.

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Royals fight through Alex Gordon injury to beat Rays 9-7."