KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Whit Merrifield's 10th-inning rocket down the line took a sharp hop and ate up New York Yankees third baseman Gio Urshela, bounding into left field. It went plenty far enough for speedster Billy Hamilton to score from second base and give the Royals a walk-off win to wrap up their weekend series.
Martin Maldonado, Hunter Dozier, Jorge Soler and Ryan O'Hearn each hit home runs in the 8-7 extra-inning win in front of an announced 21,499 at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The Royals will now head out on the road for the next week with series against the White Sox and Rangers.
Ahead 7-4 through six innings, the Royals bullpen duo of Wily Peralta and Jake Diekman held the Yankees scoreless in the seventh and eighth innings.
However, Ian Kennedy gave up three ninth-inning runs on four hits (all singles) and a walk to tie the score. The first run came on a DJ LeMahieu RBI single with two outs. Kennedy then walked slugger Luke Voit to load the bases.
With the lead down to two runs with the bases loaded and two outs, Aaron Hicks' ground ball through the right side scored two runs to tie the score, 7-7.
The tie remained until Merrifield's RBI single with two outs in the 10th inning.
Early in the game, the Royals succeeded in getting to one of the hottest starting pitchers in baseball, Yankees right-hander Domingo German. German entered the day with just one loss in nine previous starts, that having come against the Royals on April 18.
German entered the day leading the majors with nine wins, and he'd posted a 2.60 ERA. He'd allowed five home runs in 10 appearances _ not an outrageous number in homer-happy Yankee Stadium _ but the Royals smacked German around for four homers in five innings and built a 7-1 lead through five innings.
Royals starter Danny Duffy allowed four runs on five hits and one walk in six innings, though he allowed only one earned run.
An Adalberto Mondesi error with two outs extended the sixth inning and led to a three-run home run by Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres. That home run made the score 7-4 and set the table for the ninth-inning rally by the Yankees.
