KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Royals first baseman Carlos Santana smashed a 1-0 pitch over the center field wall for a walk-off two-run homer on a day when the Kansas City offense struggled to scratch out much of anything.
Santana threw his helmet into the air in elation as teammates crowded around home plate to greet him in celebration of the Royals’ 3-2 win in front of announced 15,540 at Kauffman Stadium for the team’s annual Salute to the Negro Leagues game.
The win gave the Royals (22-23) the series victory heading into Monday’s off-day.
The Royals had just three hits in the game heading into the ninth inning, but Whit Merrifield’s infield single brought Santana to the plate as the winning run. Santana had been 0 for 3 in the game before his final at-bat.
Royals manager Mike Matheny was not in the dugout to see the ending. He earned his second ejection of the season, the 18th of his managerial career, for arguing a call made with Merrifield at the plate in the sixth while the Royals were being shut out by Tigers right-hander Casey Mize.
The commotion came with one out after Merrifield was hit by a pitch. Instead of awarding Merrifield first base, home plate umpire Brian Gorman immediately deferred to first base umpire Adrian Johnson.
Johnson ruled Merrifield had swung at the pitch, thus making it a strike.
Merrifield seemed to indicate he had turned his body because of the inside pitch, not to swing. After checking on Merrifield with head trainer Nick Kenney, Matheny voiced his objection to Johnson’s call in a demonstrative face-to-face manner.
