Perez, Infante lead Royals’ eighth-inning rally past Twins

With the World Series flag raised and championship rings distributed, the Royals resumed the everyday-ness of the baseball season on Friday with an encouraging result.

The Royals scored two in the eighth inning to regain the lead they had just lost and went on to a 4-3 victory over the Twins before 27,166 at Kauffman Stadium.

Trailing 3-2, the Royals opened the eighth inning with Alex Gordon’s single to right. Up stepped Salvador Perez. His sinking line drive bounced in front of diving left fielder Danny Santana. The ball skipped past Santana and rolled to the wall.

Perez chugged around second and beat the throw to third. He had the eighth triple of his 548-game career.

He then scored the go-ahead run when Omar Infante lifted a fly ball deep enough to center.

When the inning started, Chien-Ming Wang was warming up and set to make his Royals’ debut. After the triple, Wang returned to the bench and Wade Davis started warming up.

Davis opened the ninth with a walk to Brian Dozier. It was the eighth base on balls surrendered by Royals pitchers, matching the most in any game last season.

Tension rose as Dozier stole second. But Davis struck out Danny Santana. Joe Mauer hit a one hopper that the 6-foot-5 Davis reached to snag, and the Royals had Dozier trapped in a rundown.

Dozier stayed alive long enough to get Mauer to second base. But Davis struck out Eddie Rosario to end the game and collect his second save.

The Twins had taken the lead in the eighth on Byung Ho Park’s 417-foot blast over the left-field wall off Joakim Soria, the first major-league home run for the slugger who hit 105 of them over the previous two years in the Korean Baseball Organization.

The Twins started the season with three straight losses in Baltimore and scored two runs in each of the games. One more wasn’t enough on Friday.

The game marked the season debut of Yordano Ventura, held out of the first two games against the Mets, and for five innings, Ventura mostly resembled the pitcher who finished the 2015 season strong, a 9-2 record after the All-Star break.

After laboring through a 27-pitch first inning and surrendering one run in the second, Ventura retired nine of 11 over the next three.

But he opened the sixth by serving up a walk to Mauer after throwing his first two pitches for strikes, and to Miguel Sano. The six walks tied a career high, and with the pitch count at 98, Ned Yost bounced out of the dugout to end Ventura’s night.

Luke Hochevar got Trevor Plouffe to fly out, moving to third, and after getting Park to swing at strike three in the dirt, Hochevar was an out away from escaping with the league.

But Eduardo Escobar singled through the middle and the Twins made sure Ventura would not be rewarded for his effort with a victory.

Reymond Fuentes got the most from his first base hit in a Royals uniform.

A spring-training hitting star, Fuentes made the team as the club as an option in right field along with Paulo Orlando with Jarrod Dyson opening the season on the disabled list.

Fuentes started all three games – his first in the majors since appearing in 23 games for the Padres in 2013 – and stepped up for the first time Friday seeking to extend a two-out rally.

Perez had collected the Royals’ first hit off Ervin Santana, a solid single up the middle. Infante followed with a double to left.

Fuentes lined the first pitch he saw from Santana to right, scoring both runners.

That was it for the Royals against Santana, the former Royals pitcher who struck out seven in six innings, until the eighth.

Kurt Suzuki’s one-out double to the base of the left-field wall drove home Eduardo Escobar, who had walked. The Twins might have done more damage that inning but Gordon’s stellar defense made its 2016 debut.

Gordon started the relay that wound up with cutoff man Eric Hosmer throwing out Suzuki at third.

Then Gordon ran down Byron Buxton’s drive into the corner, with Gordon finishing the catch sliding on the warning track.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Perez, Infante lead Royals’ eighth-inning rally past Twins."