Willy Adames’ mental mistake headlines SF Giants’ gutting loss to Royals

Willy Adames was the reason that the Giants didn’t lose in the top of the ninth on Monday evening at Kauffman Stadium. He also may have been the reason they did lose in the bottom of the ninth.

Adames hit a game-tying two-run home run in the top of the ninth with the Giants down to their final out, but immediately followed his biggest swing of the season by committing a mental mistake in the bottom half of the inning that paved the way for the Giants’ 4-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals.

“A loss is going to be the same way regardless,” manager Tony Vitello told reporters in Kansas City. “It doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t sound good. Changes things in a lot of different ways, so the way it goes down, especially with how many reps you get, can be a variety of ways. No matter how it goes down, you don’t like it.”

The Giants entered the top of the ninth inning trailing 3-1, their only run of the game up to that point being Heliot Ramos’ ninth home run of the season. Down to their last out, San Francisco got the big hits from its big-money players.

Jung Hoo Lee set the table with two outs in the ninth by lining a clean single into center field, bringing the tying run to the plate. Following Lee’s single, Adames went the other way on a sinker by the Royals’ Alex Lange and cleared the right-field fence to tie the game at three apiece.

Adames had notoriously struggled in these types of situations, entering play with no homers and a .393 OPS in high-leverage situations this season. This swing of the bat, then, was unquestionably his most consequential of the year.

Within moments, the jubilation of Adames’ 18th home run of the season was wiped away by Adames himself.

With no outs and the Royals’ Josh Rojas on first in the bottom of the ninth, the Royals’ Tyler Tolbert laid down a sacrifice bunt that rolled right in front of home plate. Catcher Daniel Susac pounced on the ball and delivered a perfect strike to second base. The throw beat Rojas to the bag, and Rojas didn’t bother to slide. One problem: Adames wasn’t on the bag.

Rojas ended up safe at second, and the Royals had the winning run in scoring position. They wouldn’t waste the opportunity.

Carter Jensen flew out to center field, allowing Rojas to advance to third base with one out in the frame. With the winning run 90 feet away, Nick Loftin laid down a bunt and Rojas scored from third to end the game. First baseman Bryce Eldridge’s only play was to try to flip the ball home with his glove, but he couldn’t do so cleanly and Rojas scored without a throw.

“[Susac] had a good view of where the runner was at,” Vitello said. “Probably in a position you wouldn’t normally be, but because of what he was doing there, took a crack at the lead out. I don’t know that you would redo it on his end if you had the choice.”