KANSAS CITY — With a homestand shaped by Royals home runs, it took a perfectly executed bunt play to give Kansas City its first straight win in more than a month.
Substitute catcher Freddy Fermin became man of the day and received an impromptu Gatorade shower when he hit a safety squeeze walk-off bunt on Thursday afternoon that helped Nick Pratto in the Royals’ 4-3 win over the White Sox Kauffman- Stadion. With runners in first and third place and an out, manager Matt Quatraro signaled for the Bunt Play and Fermin got the ball down. Chicago nearer Reynaldo López came down hard off the mound but failed to secure the ball as Pratto crossed the plate.
“My mind was like, ‘I have to do it,'” Fermin said.
Quatraro said he believes the Bunt is Kansas City’s best opportunity to avoid extra innings against the hard-throwing López.
“[I] I was just thinking about how difficult it is to get the ball off the ground against Lopez,” Quatraro said. “He’s really tough. They’re trying to put Freddy in the best spot and give us the best chance of winning.”
The White Sox were down 3-1 in the eighth inning, but Luis Robert Jr. delivered a game-winning two-run double against Aroldis Chapman, setting up a ninth inning that marked Kansas City’s first straight win since April 7th . 9 in San Francisco.
The precise execution ended with Fermin, but it began with Pratto, who scored a leadoff walk against López with a 3-2 pitch that once again showed Pratto’s forte is plate discipline. Matt Duffy then came through with a one-out single on the right, setting the stage for the Bunt, which gave the Royals three out of four points in the series.
“The ‘Duff’ special,” Quatraro said of Duffy’s hit. “He’s known for hitting down the right field line.”
The talks early in the game revolved mostly around the recent power surge in Kansas City. When Michael Massey went deep with a shot off the foul pole in right field in the second inning, it put the Royals on a 10-game home run streak.
In the end, however, Kansas City needed the small ball rather than the long ball.
“It just shows the versatility of this team,” Massey said. “We can hit the ball out of the park. And Freddy put an incredible ball right there and won the game. Difficult to defend.”
The Royals went 6-1 and 6-0 in their first two home games this year. But they rallied and finished their third home game 5-5, with four wins in their last five games.
Among the positives for Kansas City in the series finals against the White Sox was a solid start from Brady Singer, who had only lasted 6 2/3 innings in his last two starts combined.
Singer allowed just one run over six innings while notching four strikeouts and allowing just five hits and two walks on 80 pitches.
“I felt the lead was pretty good today,” said Singer. “All my throws worked well and I was able to cope well with the switch to left-handed.” Using all three pitches really helped.”
Quatraro felt six innings was the right time to pass Singer on his bounceback out.
“He found and made some big pitches when it was really needed,” Quatraro said.
The royals will now try to keep the momentum going as they embark on a nine-game road trip. Suffice it to say that they are doing much better than after the last two home games.
“Every team will have its ups and downs,” said Quatraro. “The lows at the beginning of the year persisted. I feel really good that our guys got some wins. The crowd was huge this week. I know they feed on it.”