Royals walk off on … bunt — by backup catcher!
KANSAS CITY — During a homestand highlighted by Royals house runs, it took a wonderfully executed bunt play to offer Kansas City its first sequence win in additional than a month.
Backup catcher Freddy Fermin grew to become the person of the day and the recipient of an impromptu Gatorade bathe when he laid down a security squeeze walk-off bunt that scored Nick Pratto to offer the Royals a 4-3 victory over the White Sox on Thursday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. With runners at first and third and one out, supervisor Matt Quatraro gave the signal for the bunt play and Fermin obtained the ball down. Chicago nearer Reynaldo López got here down laborious from the mound, however he couldn’t safe the ball as Pratto crossed the plate.
“My mind thought, ‘I have to do it’,” Fermin mentioned.
Quatraro mentioned he thought the bunt could be Kansas City’s finest alternative to keep away from additional innings in opposition to the hard-throwing López.
“[I] just was thinking how difficult it is to get the ball off the ground against López,” Quatraro mentioned. “He’s really tough. You try to put Freddy in the best spot and give us the best chance to win.”
The White Sox had been down 3-1 within the eighth, however Luis Robert Jr. delivered a game-tying two-run double in opposition to Aroldis Chapman to arrange a ninth inning that put an exclamation level on Kansas City’s first sequence win since April 7-9 in San Francisco.
The exact execution ended with Fermin, but it surely began with Pratto, who drew a leadoff stroll in opposition to López on a 3-2 pitch that once more confirmed that Pratto’s forte is plate self-discipline. Matt Duffy then got here by with a one-out single to proper, setting the stage for the bunt that gave the Royals three out of 4 within the sequence.
“The ‘Duff’ special,” Quatraro mentioned of Duffy’s hit. “He is known for those hits down the right-field line.”
The speak coming into the sport was largely about Kansas City’s latest energy surge. When Michael Massey went deep within the second inning on a blast off the right-field foul pole, it gave the Royals a streak of 10 consecutive video games with a homer.
In the tip, nevertheless, Kansas City wanted small ball relatively than the lengthy ball.
“It just shows the versatility of this team,” Massey mentioned. “We can hit the ball out of the park. And Freddy laid down an unbelievable bunt right there to win the game. Hard to defend.”
The Royals went 1-6 and 0-6 on their first two homestands this 12 months. But they rallied to complete 5-5 on their third homestand, with 4 wins of their previous 5 video games.
The positives for Kansas City within the sequence finale in opposition to the White Sox included a stable begin from Brady Singer, who had lasted simply 6 2/3 innings in his previous two begins mixed.
Singer allowed only one run over six innings, whereas putting out 4 and permitting simply 5 hits and two walks on 80 pitches.
“I felt like the command was pretty good today,” Singer mentioned. “ All of my pitches were working well and I was able to incorporate the changeup to lefties. Using all three pitches was really helpful.”
Quatraro felt six innings was the best spot to elevate Singer in his bounceback outing.
“He located and made some big pitches when he really had to,” Quatraro mentioned.
The Royals will now attempt to preserve the momentum going as they head out on a nine-game street journey. Suffice to say, they’re feeling significantly better about issues than they did after the earlier two homestands.
“Every team is going to have its ups and downs,” Quatraro mentioned. “The downs at the beginning of the year were prolonged. I feel really good for our guys to get some wins. The crowds this week have been tremendous. I know they feed off that.”
