Royals Go Fishing in Tampa Bay, come up with Crazy Eighth win, 7-4

We all expected Nelson Velázquez to be the hero of tonight’s game, right?

Back in ancient history when cable television ruled the entertainment landscape, there was this phenomenon known as Sweeps Week. TV stations would plan to broadcast the absolute most dramatic episodes of their TV shows all week because the TV ratings that were measured during this week would set the rates the broadcasters could charge advertisers for the rest of the year. If MLB was fictionalized, this absolutely would have been a Sweeps Week game.

It started innocuously enough. Brady Singer had three scoreless innings to get things started, though they were by no means perfect. Meanwhile, Nelson Velázquez belted a solo home run with one out in the second to give the Royals an early lead. Bobby Witt Jr. tacked on an RBI single scoring single following a Hunter Renfroe walk and Maikel Garcia single in the top of the third. With the Royals up 2-0 amid this winning streak, it seemed like they would cruise to their eighth win.

Things started to go awry in the bottom of the fourth. Jonathan Aranda hit his first homer of the year to cut the lead in half. Then the Rays tied it in the fifth thanks to a single, a walk, an error on a pickoff throw and a ground out.

The Royals stormed back in the seventh. Adam Frazier walked and stole second. Garrett Hampson pinch hit for MJ Melendez against a left-handed reliever and walked. Then Hunter Renfroe walked. Bases loaded no outs for Kyle Isbel. And he fouled it off of his own face, bloodying his nose if not breaking it, and requiring a substitution. Dairon Blanco came into the game with a strike already on him and managed a sacrifice fly to score Frazier. Unfortunately, as is the custom, Garrett Hampson made a bizarre baserunning choice to break late for third and was thrown out when the cutoff man noticed his poor choice.

Chris Stratton, who had pitched the sixth inning, came on for the seventh and got one out but things went awry again. After an astonishing behind-the-back play, he hit a batter and walked one before Angel Zerpa was called upon to rescue the inning. Zerpa allowed a game-tying single, walked a batter to load the bases, and then induced a double play from pinch-hitter Yandy Díaz before the Rays could regain the lead.

John Schreiber was tasked with securing the eighth and did it successfully, James McArthur was asked to pitch the ninth and get the game to extras and did so successfully. In the top of the tenth the Royals played some small ball to score a run. Renfroe started at second, Blanco took a walk, and Maikel Garcia sacrificed both runners over. Bobby Witt Jr. was intentionally walked and Richard Lovelady was called upon to get Vinnie Pasquantino and he did, but not without allowing damage as Pasquantino hit the ball far enough to earn his league-leading seventh sacrifice fly and give the Royals the lead.

In the bottom of the tenth, having run out of reliable relievers, manager Matt Quatraro asked McArthur to close things out as well. He got a shallow flyball and a groundball. The runner moved to third and McArthur had Jonny DeLuca down in the count 0-2 before accidentally letting his slider clip the plate and DeLuca doubled to re-tie the game.

Finally, the Royals batters decided they had had enough. Velázquez was leading off with Freddy Fermin, the last man off of the bench with Michael Massey out due to injury, running for Salvador Perez as the ghost runner. Velázquez whallopped a ball and it seemed it might be a two-run home run before we all settled for an RBI double. Frazier smashed a groundball off the glove of third baseman Amed Rosario to single home Velázquez.

Garrett Hampson bunted a single and Frazier scored from second with two outs when Garcia hit a line drive to center to give us our final score.

Nick Anderson, now with a three-run lead, closed things out in the bottom of the eleventh but gave us a tiny bit more drama with five straight balls to start the inning which not only brought the tying run to the plate but got Quatraro to call the bullpen.

Ultimately, the Royals pulled it out and, honestly, they were never behind in the game. But it was tense almost all the way through. Jose Siri made two impressive plays to keep his team in the game to demonstrate the importance of a talented centerfield defender but the rest of his team demonstrated the futility of such efforts if no one else can cover for the lack of a bat.

Almost every available player appeared in this one. The Royals managed to hold back Sam Long. Will Smith, and Carlos Hernández. The Rays used every single reliever in their bullpen and catcher Alex Jackson was the only player to remain on the bench. However, Randy Arozerena pinch-hit for Ben Rortvedt in the bottom of the eleventh, so he would have seen the field if the Rays had managed to tie the game.

This is a game that the Royals absolutely lose last year. But it also feels like a game they would have lost earlier this year. They’re becoming more resilient and determined as the season goes on and that can only bode well as they continue to push for the division. For those already doing some scoreboard watching, the Guardians are on the west coast this weekend against the Angels so that game still hasn’t even started.

It will be interesting to see how the reliever usage affects tomorrow’s game. McArthur and Stratton are almost certainly unavailable for the Royals. It’s unclear who might be available for the Rays. It is very likely both teams will make moves to bolster their bullpens. The Royals will ask Michael Wacha to pitch. Despite his 4.45 ERA, he has been very good in his last three starts. The Rays will turn to their ace, Taj Bradley. The game will start at 12:40 Royals time.