Mariners prevail in wild finish to top Royals in 10 innings
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – If you are going to beat the Royals at Kauffman Stadium, you need to get a quality outing from your starter, score at least five runs if not more, make all the routine plays defensively while sprinkling in a few great ones – and even then – that still might not be enough.
In the Sunday afternoon sunshine and Midwest heat, the Mariners needed all of that to finally finish off the persistent Royals and avoid being swept in the three-games series.
The back-and-forth nature of Seattle’s 6-5 win over Kansas City in 10 innings and really all three games over the weekend had a distinctive feel.
“This series was like playoff baseball at its best,” said shortstop J.P. Crawford. “They’re a really good team. They never stopped giving up. We never quit. These games are really fun to play in.”
And while the season series is over with each team winning their respective series at home, it’s not impossible to see a scenario where the Mariners have to return here in October for an American League division series.
The Royals, who trail the AL Central-leading Guardians by four games, are currently entrenched in the second wild -card spot, sitting 41/2 games up on the Twins and four games behind the Orioles, who hold the first wild card spot.
“It was wild like they always are here in Kansas City,” manager Scott Servais said. “Ton of credit to our guys. This is a tough place for us to figure out how to win a ballgame. We’ve had leads here, a lot of leads the last few years and the Royals just they’re pesky as hell. They’re really tough to finish off.”
The game ran the gamut of emotions similar to a postseason game.
The highs of an outstanding start from George Kirby, who stymied the Royals aggressive hitters for seven innings, and the lows of scoring just one run off KC starter Cole Ragans and seeming overwhelmed.
The outburst of joy when the offense came to life after Ragans departure, scoring two runs in the seventh inning for a 3-1 lead, highlighted by Tyler Locklear ripping an RBI double for his first MLB hit.
The anticipation and subsequent relief of seeing Andres Munoz return to the mound and work a 1-2-3 eighth inning, including striking out Bobby Witt Jr., after an awkward collision at home plate aggravated an already ailing lower back and forced him out of the game four days ago. Munoz got some help with “phenomenal” bare-handed plays from second baseman Ryan Bliss and third baseman Josh Rojas.
The sobering disappointment of being an out away from a victory and seeing Mike Baumann give up a game-tying two-run homer to M.J. Melendez in the bottom of the ninth.
And when Julio Rodriguez put Seattle up by a run with a clutch two-out single in the 10th and Cal Raleigh added two very-needed insurance runs, there was still a certain amount of fear that they hadn’t done enough.
That fear devolved into panic when Austin Voth gave up a two-run homer to Hunter Renfroe to make it one-run game and then allowed a single to Kyle Isbel to put the tying run on base.
Even after Voth got Maikel Garcia to ground into a forced out at second for the first out of the inning. It meant that Witt was coming to the plate with a runner on and representing the winning run.
In a similar situation on Friday, Witt hit a triple and later scored the winning run.
But Voth got Witt to fly out to right field for the second out. Servais then called on lefty Tayler Saucedo to get the final out of the game against lefty-handed hitting Vinnie Pasquantino. The second of two well-placed sinkers at the bottom of the zone resulted in a groundball to second to secure the victory.
“Credit to our guys, when you give up the lead like that, the first thing is to feel sorry for yourself,” Servais said. “You can’t do that. You got to go out, grind and figure out a way to create another rally and we did. It’s time to get out of here. Let’s go home and play there.”
The Mariners return home to face the worst team in MLB – the Chicago White Sox in a four-game series followed by three games against the Rangers (31-34), who sit five games back of Seattle in the AL West.
Crawford gave the Mariners and Kirby a 1-0 lead off Ragans moments into the game. He hammered a 97-mph fastball into the right field seats for a second-straight game with a leadoff homer. On Saturday, he hit the first pitch from Alec Marsh over the wall in right. He waited until the fourth pitch of Sunday’s game to hit the 11th leadoff homer of his career and third of the season.
“Just making sure I’m on time and not missing the fastball,” Crawford said. “I’m not trying to think too much up there and just letting my body do the work.”
But similar to Saturday, the Mariners struggled after getting an early 1-0 lead. Ragans retired the next eight hitters, striking out six of them. Crawford broke up the string of consecutive outs with a single up the middle with two outs in the third inning. But Ragans still worked six innings, allowing only three hits with a walk and nine strikeouts.
Kirby was just as good. Relying heavily more on his slider than in typical starts, he pitched seven innings, allowing one run on five hits with a walk and four strikeouts.
“I threw it well below the zone and out of the zone and steal some strikes with it,” Kirby said of the sliders. “Ever since I moved over on the rubber, it’s been feeling a lot better. That was the biggest thing was letting the hitter think it was a strike and then it kind of goes out of the zone.”
His one run allowed came in the fifth inning. After picking up a pair of one-out singles from Freddy Fermin and Renfroe to put runners on the corners, the Royals executed a safety squeeze bunt with No. 9 hitter Kyle Isbel. There was no play on Fermin at home on the bunt up the first-base line. It tied the game at 1.
France goes on 10-day IL
The tenderness that Ty France was feeling in his heel was more than just a contusion.
A few hours before Sunday’s series finale at Kauffman Stadium, the Mariners placed France on the 10-day injured list — retroactive to Saturday — with a hairline fracture in his right heel.
France suffered the injury on Friday night when he was struck in his back foot by a pitch. He played the remainder of the game, hitting a pair of doubles and reaching base four times. But the persistent pain grew worse over night and he was scratched from the lineup before Saturday’s game.
Seattle selected the minor -league contract of prospect Locklear to take France’s place on the roster and in the starting lineup.
Locklear had a solid debut with the go-ahead double in the seventh inning. Locklear, 23, is rated as the No. 8 prospect in the Mariners organization by MLB Pipeline.