Michael Massey hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, and the Kansas City Royals made three standout defensive plays in the bottom half to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 on Friday night at the Trop.
Massey drove in automatic runner Michael A. Taylor, who had moved up to third on a groundball.
Scott Barlow got the win in relief aided by catcher Salvador Perez, who threw out Roman Quinn on an attempted steal of third in the 10th. MJ Melendez, who had thrown out Taylor Walls attempting to stretch a single into a double for the first out of the inning, ended the game with a diving catch of Francisco Mejia’s sinking liner in left field.
Bobby Witt’s 16th home run put the Royals up 2-0 in the third against Rays starter and CY Young candidate Shane McClanahan, who went seven innings of two run ball with eight strikeouts and three walks. But Kansas City got only one other runner as far as second base until Taylor started the 10th there. Witt’s 438-foot homer came after a walk to Melendez and was the first of only two hits McClanahan allowed in seven innings.
Royals starter Brady Singer gave up two runs on five hits and four walks in six innings, striking out seven.
Randy Arozarena drove in Tampa Bay’s runs with a two-out single in the sixth, tying it 2-2, after hits by David Peralta and Harold Ramirez.
I used AP to help with the structure of this article.
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