Royals magic not enough as they fall in ten innings 6-5

The Royals showed some fight today.

The Royals battled to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, and even staged another comeback in the tenth, but their comeback magic fell short as they to the Mariners 6-5 on Sunday afternoon.

For the second time in the series, J.P. Crawford led off the game with a home run, this time off Cole Ragans. The Royals had a chance to tie in the bottom to the first when Vinnie Pasquantino tripled with two outs, but Salvador Perez struck out looking to end the inning. The Royals did get on the board off Mariners starter George Kirby in the fifth. Freddy Fermin singled, and Hunter Renfroe singled, advancing him to third with one out. Kyle Isbel lay down a perfect squeeze bunt to score Fermin and tie the game 1-1.

Ragans was once again solid, giving up just three hits and one run over six innings with nine strikeouts, exiting after 107 pitches. But the Mariners took the lead in the seventh off reliever Will Klein, on a double by Tyler Locklear, his first MLB RBI. Josh Rojas singled home another run to make it 3-1.

The Mariners elected to use Andrés Muñoz, who is suffering a back injury, in the eighth inning. That left Michael Baumann, designated for assignment by Baltimore a few weeks ago, for the ninth. He was one out away from recording his first career save when Nick Loftin doubled to right. MJ Melendez homered on the first pitch to tie the game and give the Royals new life.

James McArthur came on for the tenth, and nearly escaped trouble. Freddy Fermin appeared to have picked off runner Josh Rojas off third, but he was called safe and the call was not overturned upon review. A check swing by Dylan Moore with two strikes also seemed to get him out of the inning, but it was ruled not a swing. Moore walked, setting up an RBI single by Julio Rodriguez to score Rojas. Cal Raleigh singled off Will Smith to score two more runs and make it 6-3.

But the Royals weren’t done with their comebacks. Hunter Renfroe led off the bottom of the tenth with a two-run home run to score the extra inning runner and make it 6-5. Kyle Isbel singled to put the tying run on base for the top of the order. But neither Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr. nor Vinnie Pasquantino were able to plate him, ending the game.

The Royals still take the series and showed a lot of fight in the process. They fall to 39-27 and will begin a four-game home series against the New York Yankees tomorrow evening.