KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)– Paulo Orlando came through again for the Kansas City Royals.
Orlando, who had a walk-off grand slam Tuesday against Tampa Bay, hit a tie-breaking eighth inning home run as the Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 11-10 Sunday after blowing a seven-run advantage.
Orlando led off the eighth with a home run off Bo Schultz (0-1).
EDITOR’S PICKS
Two teams’ takeaways from Blue Jays-Royals barnburner
Sunday’s 11-10 victory by the Royals over the Blue Jays gave both teams an idea of where they are and what they have to do in the second half.
“It was a fastball in,” Orlando said. “I fouled off the first pitch, which was a fastball, too. He threw me two cutters and I waited for the fastball and I put a good swing there.”
With temperatures in the 90s, Orlando did not try to escape from catcher Salvador Perez’s Gatorade shower in a postgame television interview on the field.
“I needed it because it was too hot,” Orlando said. “It was a special moment. Salvy always makes fun of everybody. I waited for that.”
The Royals enter the All-Star break with an American League-leading 52 victories.
“I saw this coming three years ago,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Kansas City led 7-0 after five innings, but the Blue Jays sent 12 men to the plate in an eight-run sixth. Danny Valencia and Jose Bautista contributed two-run doubles in the inning.
Seven of the runs were unearned after Mike Moustakas and Omar Infante committed errors.
“It was an odd game, but those are going to happen every now and then when you play a lot of games,” said Bautista, who was ejected in the middle of an eighth inning at-bat by plate umpire Jerry Meals for arguing balls and strikes. “It was quirky. A lot of errors, the sun, the heat. It was a weird game.”
The Royals regained the lead with three in the bottom of the inning with Lorenzo Cain, who had three hits, singling in one run. Alcides Escobar had a RBI on a ground out, while the other run scored on Jose Reyes’ second error of the game.
The Jays got a run back in the seventh on a Russell Martin RBI-doubles. Reyes, who had his second straight three-hit game, singled home Kevin Pillar, who had tripled, in the eighth to tie it 10-10. It was only the second run Royals reliever Wade Davis (5-1) had allowed this season.
Greg Holland worked the ninth, logging his 19th save in 21 opportunities.
Kendrys Morales homered in a six-run first. Morales crushed a Felix Doubront fastball over the center field fence with Eric Hosmer and Moustakas aboard. That gives him 61 RBIs, second in the American League.
Doubront made it through five innings after the rocky start, although he gave up 10 hits and seven runs, two unearned.
