KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The hood of a sweatshirt covered Danny Duffy's shaved head as he strolled through the Royals clubhouse Thursday, three hours before the left-hander would fire a 94-mph fastball for his first pitch. He walked toward an auxiliary port and plugged in his phone, taking over the music controls. As Justin Timberlake blared over the sound system, he danced in his flip flops.
Blended together, it's a pregame routine Duffy used to build his energy. He had it early.
The lineup found its energy late.
Duffy turned in his third straight quality start, and Salvador Perez took him off the hook with a two-run double in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Royals to a walk-off 4-3 victory.
Brooks Pounders was credited with his first major league victory after throwing a scoreless ninth. Mariners closer Steve Cishek took the loss.
The Royals broke a four-game losing streak _ topping three runs for the first time in five games _ and moved within seven games of the first-place Indians.
It all spoiled an impressive start from Seattle starter James Paxton, the latest pitcher to silence the Royals' bats.
Duffy countered with 6 1/3 innings and allowed two runs. He departed the mound after walking his first hitter since June 22, a span of 88 batters. He struck out seven.
The Royals managed four runs in his support _ all of them after he left the mound. Paulo Orlando ignited the comeback with a two-out, two-run single in the eighth to pull the team within one. Perez finished it off with a double to score the final two.
That was the epilogue.
The prologue: Paxton preyed on the ultra-aggressive and slumping lineup. He needed only 35 pitches to record his first 15 outs.
The double play helped sponsor his quick work. He induced four of them. His final line across eight innings included only two earned runs.
Nearly three hours before his most stable pitcher took the mound Thursday, Royals manager Ned Yost was alternatively addressing his club's offensive irregularities. The answer, he quipped, was perhaps a return to Kauffman Stadium, where the Royals have scored 5.0 runs per game, almost two runs better than their road mark.
The solution came in the final two innings. It required two slump-busting doubles.
Whit Merrifield opened the ninth with a double to left field _ his first hit over his past 18 at-bats. The side-arm throwing Cishek plunked Kendrys Morales with a curveball before Morales made way for Jarrod Dyson on the basepaths.
Two batters later, Perez drove a ball to the center field track.
Merrifield jogged home. Dyson followed.
Perez entered the game on an 0 for 23 streak. He broke his hitting skid with a pair of line-drive singles to left field in his first three trips to the plate. He broke the losing skid in his last.
He was one bright spot.
Duffy was another.
In a rotation that has lacked steadiness, a man who started the season as a bullpen option continued his emergence into a model most resembling consistency. He has allowed exactly two runs in three consecutive outings, all of them recorded as quality starts.
He allowed a run in the second and fifth innings Thursday. Dae-Ho Lee drove a double into the right-center field gap to lead off the second. Daniel Robertson collected his first major league hit of the season three batters later to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.
Robertson stung Duffy again in the fifth, when he led off the frame with a double over Alex Gordon's head in left field. He scored two batters later on Ketel Marte's sacrifice fly to right field.
Nelson Cruz supplied a moonshot in the eighth for insurance _ or so it seemed.
