TORONTO – Buoyed by Trade Deadline acquisitions on Thursday and recognizing the meaning of adding players rather than subtracting, the Royals set out on a long and important road trip ready to prove that was the right strategy while knowing what they had in front of them.
A series win against one of the best teams in baseball? Not too bad of a start.
The Royals rallied late in Sunday’s series finale for a 7-4 win in 10 innings over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, marking Kansas City’s fourth consecutive series win -- and this one was its biggest yet. Toronto (65-48) sits atop the American League East and was tied with the Tigers for the best record in the AL entering Sunday.
The Royals, back to .500 at 56-56, now head to Boston looking to build on the momentum they gained this weekend. Kansas City sits 3 1/2 games out of the final American League Wild Card spot. The Red Sox (62-51) hold the top Wild Card spot, 5 1/2 games clear of the Royals.
“Any time you can beat a team in front of you, just to prove it against the best in their ballpark is a nice thing,” Vinnie Pasquantino said. “And we got another series ahead of us with similar things. We’re at .500 right now, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.
“I feel like we’re ready for it.”
It was not just that the Royals won Sunday, but how they won that speaks to the difference in this club, turning a quiet offensive game into a five-run 10th inning.
“It’s huge momentum for us,” said starter Seth Lugo, who went only 4 2/3 innings, holding Toronto to two runs despite four walks. “It’s what we’ve been needing. Grinding out games, not giving in.”
Pasquantino’s RBI single tied the game in the eighth inning, and scoreless frames from relievers Lucas Erceg and Hunter Harvey sent the game to extras tied at 2-2.
As No. 9 hitter Kyle Isbel stepped to the plate against righty Seranthony Domínguez, he didn’t think about bunting over the automatic runner.
Manager Matt Quatraro told Isbel to have a pull-side approach. They wanted a hit rather than a productive out.
As the road team, the Royals were playing for more than one run.
“[The Blue Jays] are going to get the same opportunity,” Quatraro said. “ ... The matchup there with Izzy is pretty good -- maybe it’s different if it’s a really tough lefty. But the way he’s been swinging the bat, we have a lot of confidence in him.”
Isbel, who went 6-for-10 this weekend, proved his manager right by pulling a first-pitch inside heater down the first-base line past a drawn-in Blue Jays infield expecting the bunt.
Isbel had homered off Domínguez earlier this season in Baltimore, when the reliever was with the O’s, and Isbel was ready for nearly the same pitch on Sunday.
“Bunt in that situation puts a lot of pressure on, so being able to come through with a hit is huge,” Isbel said. “Being on second with no outs and an opportunity to score another run -- the guys put up great at-bats behind me. That’s a huge swing.”
The Royals were hardly done there.
Jonathan India was hit by a pitch for the second consecutive day. Bobby Witt Jr. walked. And instead of Pasquantino coming to the plate at that point, it was Tyler Tolbert, who ran for Pasquantino in the eighth but never made it off first base.
Tolbert laid off two sweepers out of the zone and took a called strike before lining a two-run single to right-center. The pressure was then on the Blue Jays, with Witt on third and Tolbert on first. It got to them when Tolbert took off for second. Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk tried to catch Witt off guard at third but threw the ball into left field. Witt scored and Tolbert went to third. He then scored moments later on Maikel Garcia’s sacrifice fly.
“We caused a little bit of chaos,” Tolbert said. “We just want to put pressure on the defense. We know what our speed can do. We got to show it off.”
For all the talk about the Royals’ power showing up -- which it has, way more consistently than earlier this season -- this is the kind of offense with which the Royals can win.
Unrelenting and unforgiving.
“I think there’s a lot of faith in the bottom half of the lineup right now,” Pasquantino said. “The bottom half came alive. That’s why we made the trades that we made. It’s a really professional lineup right now. You got to navigate through nine tough outs.”