Bobby Witt Jr. smacked a tiebreaking three-run homer in the top of the 10th inning and the Kansas City Royals stretched their winning streak to a season-best four games with a 4-1 victory over the Athletics on Tuesday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
Salvador Perez also homered for Kansas City, which has won five of six contests following an eight-game skid. Maikel Garcia and Perez each had two hits in the opener of a three-game series.
Jacob Wilson had an RBI single and Shea Langeliers had three hits for the Athletics, who left 14 runners on base.
Nick Mears (2-1) worked a perfect ninth. Lucas Erceg walked Carlos Cortes with two out in the bottom of the 10th before Zack Gelof reached on an infield hit to load the bases.
Erceg then retired Darell Hernaiz on a soft liner to second to post his seventh save.
The Royals had runners on first and second with no outs in the 10th against Justin Sterner (1-3) before Garcia popped up a bunt that Langeliers caught in foul territory. Witt then came up and hit the second pitch to right-center, and the ball barely cleared the short wall for his second homer in two games. Witt didn’t hit any in the team’s first 27 games.
The Athletics lost Tyler Soderstrom to an apparent right shoulder injury after a dive for a fly ball in the fifth — he initially stayed in — and the Royals saw Vinnie Pasquantino exit with lower-back tightness after being hurt during his swing while grounding out in the sixth.
The Athletics’ Aaron Civale didn’t allow a run in five innings while giving up five hits and one walk. He struck out three.
Kansas City’s Kris Bubic permitted one run and four hits in five-plus innings. He struck out six and walked four and departed after hitting Cortes with a pitch to start the sixth.
The A’s took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Gelof reached on an infield hit and scored from second on Wilson’s two-out single to center.
Perez tied the score with one out in the sixth when he jumped on a 2-2 fastball and ripped a 425-foot blast to center off Hogan Harris. The nine-time All Star has homered twice in his last three games.
Perez nearly had a homer in the fourth, but he didn’t have enough elevation on a liner that smacked against the left field wall. He was held to a single by Soderstrom.
–Field Level Media
