On the 57th anniversary of the moon landing, the Royals and Giants celebrated by playing a baseball game on the surface of the sun that the Royals won 4-3 on a walkoff squeeze bunt. It was 97 F at first pitch. Thankfully, the Royals gracefully managed to avoid all the extra innings while burning on the field.
The surface of the sun makes weird things happen, apparently. After Alex Lange blew the game in the ninth by giving up a two-run, game-tying homer that just cleared the fence, the Royals came up in the bottom of the 9th with a chance to walk it off. Josh Rojas, who just made a beautiful diving stop down the third base line in the 8th inning to save a run, slapped a grounder against the shift for a single. Then Tyler Tolbert laid down a pop-spinner of a bunt that the Giants catcher picked up at the line. It was ruled a fair ball, and the catcher threw to second base for the force. Willy Adames was *not* standing on second base when he caught the ball, so no outs were given to the Giants. I’m not sure if that ball would have kept rolling foul, but it was worth a shot. I’m not sure they were getting the force at second anyway.
Carter Jensen lined out deep enough to center field for Rojas to advance to third. That brought up Nick Loftin, who showed bunt early on. His first attempt was foul. With the infield in and charging on the pitch, Loftin did manage to lay down a bunt down the first base line. Bryce Eldridge was there, but he did not field it cleanly and could not get the throw to the catcher in time to get Rojas. Walkoff.
I don’t know if it was the sweat dripping down the pitchers’ arms, or cramps, or whatever, but this game was a bit cursed, if you hadn’t noticed already. Both starters seemed to have grip issues with several errant pitches. Curveballs that were 15 feet above the plate. Changeups that seemingly moved up, not down. Sliders that did no such thing. Multiple hit-by-pitches. Giants starter Trevor McDonald was removed in the bottom of the 5th inning during warmup pitches for an injury of some kind. Bobby Witt Jr was subbed out for Nick Loftin in the top of the 5th due to lower back tightness. I think even the umpire was affected by the heat – the strike zone seemed rather large. The Royals ran out of challenges, and the Giants used more than their allotted 2 since they won a few. There were 8 total ABS challenges.
The slippery ball issues (I’m assuming) came to haunt McDonald in the 4th inning before he was removed in the 5th. He hit Vinnie Pasquantino on a slider that looked like it just slipped out of his hand. Salvador Perez, himself hit by a similar slippery-errant pitch earlier in the game, blasted a majestic homer well beyond the center field fence to put the Royals ahead. That was his 316th homer, putting him 1 shy of George Brett’s Royals record. Michael Massey doubled and then advanced to third on a groundout. He scored on a single from Isaac Collins.
Worth noting – the Royals got into McDonald’s weakness – runners on base – early in the game in the second inning. A single, walk, and HBP (Salvy) loaded the bases with no outs. Then Michael Massey hit a shallow popup to left-center field, after which the Royals sent Lane Thomas home. The center fielder made a strong, accurate throw and nailed Thomas at home for a double play. A groundout ended the inning. How disappointing to load the bases with no outs and come away with nothing.
When it wasn’t slipping out of his hand, Wacha had excellent command of his changeup. He gave up a home run to Heliot Ramos on a curveball down the pipe, but otherwise Wacha pitched a very strong game. He struck out 5 guys in his 6 innings and gave up only 3 hits. Another quality start (his 13th) for the Royals leader in innings pitched.
The Royals move to 41-60 and the Giants are now 42-58. They will play again tomorrow at 6:40pm US Central time at Kauffman. Hopefully it will be cooled off by then.
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