Salvador Perez lashed a walk-off single in the 10th inning, and nine pitchers combined on a five-hit shutout as the Kansas City Royals blanked the visiting Atlanta Braves 1-0 on Wednesday afternoon.
Scoreless after 9 1/2 innings in a day of very little baserunning and lots of light contact, pinch runner MJ Melendez was placed on second base to start the bottom of the 10th — the first time a Royals baserunner reached scoring position.
Perez then lined an 0-1 slider to right center off Daysbel Hernandez (4-2), just the Royals’ third hit, for his 10th career walk-off winner to lift them to their third straight series win.
Reliever Sam Long (1-2) escaped a first-and-third, no-out jam in the 10th with two strikeouts and a lineout.
In a bullpen game, reliever Angel Zerpa served as the opener and tossed one-plus inning, allowing just a single.
The bullpen finished with 10 strikeouts and a walk in the club’s ninth shutout.
Making his third straight start since being inserted into the Atlanta rotation this month, Kansas City area native Joey Wentz was outstanding over 6 2/3 innings.
The left-hander allowed only a leadoff single to Maikel Garcia and three walks as the Royals never put a runner in scoring position against him. He posted season highs with seven strikeouts and 95 pitches.
The Braves’ Drake Baldwin produced a pinch-hit single and extended his on-base streak to 11 games as Atlanta fell to 2-9 in the past 11 games.
With All-Star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. (right Achilles inflammation) sent to the 10-day injured list after Tuesday’s 9-6 loss to the Royals, Eli White replaced the 2023 National League MVP and went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, including one in the 10th.
After combining for 32 runs in the first two matchups, the teams’ bats were quiet as both Wentz and the home team’s bullpen were impressive in the getaway game.
Wentz went about his business working ahead of Kansas City batters and retired eight straight after Garcia’s hit.
In the sixth, the visitors generated the rubber game’s first offensive threat when Nick Allen and Jurickson Profar opened with singles, but reliever Hunter Harvey buckled down and put away Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Michael Harris II.
–Field Level Media
