KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ On a steamy, sweltering night at Kauffman Stadium, the Royals avoided calamity and struck for two runs in the bottom of the ninth, engineering a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Detroit Tigers.
Just minutes after closer Kelvin Herrera allowed a two-run homer in the top of the ninth, squandering a 3-2 lead, designated hitter Brandon Moss delivered a game-tying double in the bottom of the inning before scoring the winning run on a sacrifice fly from Alex Gordon off Tigers closer Justin Wilson.
Moss finished 3 for 4 with a homer _ his first since July 1 _ and two RBIs. Starter Jason Hammel offered 61/3 strong innings on a stifling summer night. The Royals (46-47) climbed within two games of first-place Cleveland in the American League Central.
Two outs from victory, Herrera served up a two-run homer to Detroit's Mikie Mahtook in the top of the ninth, wasting a 3-2 lead.
The baseball landed 418 feet from home plate, sailing over the wall in dead center field, clearing Lorenzo Cain's glove, a near kill shot in what would have been a disastrous night at Kauffman Stadium.
Moments later, Herrera exited the game alongside head trainer Nick Kenney. His condition was not known. In the hours before the game, manager Ned Yost revealed that Herrera had been battling a sore throat and fever earlier in the week. He had not been available on Tuesday. In the moments after the homer, it was unclear whether the illness played a role on Wednesday.
The pitch was a 98-mph fastball on a 1-2 count. Mahtook hammered it to center field. The Royals found a way to rise from the dead.
Before the late drama, the biggest moment had come in the seventh.
In 3,025 plate appearances across seven seasons, Royals catcher Salvador Perez had recorded just nine triples. Once every 337 times at the plate, the baseball would fall just right in the gap, or a fielder would find himself out of position, and Perez would lug his 6-foot-3, 250-pound frame 270 feet around the bases.
This is not the rarest sight you might see at Kauffman Stadium, but it might be on the short list, and on a steamy night Wednesday, the sight of a large man rumbling around the bases was the precursor to a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh.
Perez hit a sinking liner to left field in the seventh that turned into the 10th triple of his career. He scored on an RBI single from Mike Moustakas off Tigers starter Justin Verlander. The sequence delivered a late lead following seven losses in eight games.
Perez was only batting because rookie Jorge Bonifacio had been picked off second base to end the sixth inning. Perez opened the inning by yanking a first-pitch curveball into left field.
The baseball hung in the air for just a moment, a white orb tempting Tigers left fielder Justin Upton into an ill-advised dive. When the baseball slipped under his glove and bounced toward the wall of the left-field bullpen, Perez was hauling toward third base.
As Perez cruised into third base, his chest heaved. He owned his first triple since May 23, 2016. Moments later, Verlander ran the count to 3-0 against Moustakas. All night, he had hurled 96-mph fastballs at Moustakas. As a fourth straight fastball zoomed toward the plate, Moustakas would guess right, roping an RBI single into center for a 2-1 lead.
The Royals improved to 3-6 against the Tigers and 14-23 against the American League Central. The divisional record has been a persistent flaw in the club's quest for a third postseason appearance in four seasons.
In 36 games against divisional foes, the Royals had allowed 5.42 runs per game. In 56 games against the rest of baseball, they had yielded just 3.93 runs per game. On Wednesday, Hammel helped reverse the trend.
In his previous start, he had taken a no-hitter into the sixth inning before surrendering a game-tying three-run homer to Texas' Adrian Beltre. On Wednesday, he allowed a single to leadoff man Ian Kinsler in the top of the first and yielded a run when Upton singled to center and Miguel Cabrera recorded an RBI ground-out to second.
On another hot night, as the heat index tipped toward 101 at first pitch, Hammel settled in, allowing just one run before handing the ball to the bullpen with one out in the seventh.
The Royals had climbed out of the early 1-0 hole when Moss homered off Verlander in the bottom of the third. The 361-foot blast ricocheted off the foul pole in right field. The game would remain tied until the seventh.
Moss had not homered since July 1 against Minnesota. He had clubbed two long balls since May 21. He entered Wednesday with just two hits in his previous 19 at-bats since July 1.
But for a moment, a solo homer erased a one-run deficit. Perez and Moustakas would combine to produce a run in the seventh. After losses on Monday and Tuesday, the Royals can now split the series on Thursday when Danny Duffy takes the mound against Detroit's Michael Fulmer.
