CHICAGO (AP)– The Kansas City Royals have home-field advantage in one round of the playoffs. They’re still looking for more.
Eric Hosmer hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the top of the 10th inning, and the Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 5-3 on Wednesday night to clinch home-field advantage in an AL Division Series.
Ben Zobrist singled with one out, and Hosmer drove a pitch from David Robertson (6-5) into the bullpen in right field to give the Royals the lead. For Hosmer, it was his 18th homer of the season.
“It was a huge hit for us,” manager Ned Yost said.
Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas also homered for Kansas City, which had already clinched the AL Central title. They will host the first two games of their ALDS, and a Game 5 if necessary.
Combined with Toronto splitting its doubleheader in Baltimore, the Royals pulled within a game of the Blue Jays for home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs. Toronto did win the season series, giving it the tiebreaker over the Royals.
But that’s still the target for the Royals, who came within one victory of winning last year’s World Series.
“As many games as we can get at home as possible, that’s what we want to try and do,” Hosmer said. “Obviously we would like home-field advantage throughout the whole entire postseason but just got to see how that plays out. To have the first round at least at home is definitely big for us.”
The win was a painful one for Kansas City. In the seventh, Lorenzo Cain fouled a pitch from Jose Quintana off his right knee. He remained in the game and grounded out to third but he didn’t make it to first and was replaced in the bottom of the inning.
The Royals said Cain has a right knee contusion and is day-to-day.
Edinson Volquez went six innings, allowed one run and nine hits while striking out five but couldn’t pick up his first win since Sept. 8. Franklin Morales (4-2) pitched a scoreless inning in relief and Wade Davis picked up his 15th save in 16 tries.
Quintana remained winless since Sept. 12 despite going nine innings while allowing three runs and five hits.
“He was great, outstanding, you can use all of them,” Chicago manager Robin Ventura said. “We thought we had a chance there to get him one.”
Chicago gave Quintana a 1-0 lead in the second on Adam Eaton’s run-scoring single. The White Sox had three singles off Volquez in the first and three more in the second but only scored one run.
Gordon led off the third with his 13th home run over the fence in deep left-center field. Moustakas’ two-run homer in the sixth gave Kansas City a 3-1 lead.
Jose Abreu hit his 30th homer in the seventh for Chicago to pull within 3-2. In the eighth, Chicago tied the game with a double by Tyler Flowers when his drive to right off Kelvin Herrera went over Paulo Orlando’s head and bounced over the wall, bringing in Tyler Saladino.
CHICAGO — The Kansas City Royals have home-field advantage in one round of the playoffs. They’re still looking for more.
Eric Hosmer hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the top of the 10th inning, and the Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 5-3 on Wednesday night to clinch home-field advantage in an AL Division Series.
Ben Zobrist singled with one out, and Hosmer drove a pitch from David Robertson (6-5) into the bullpen in right field to give the Royals the lead. For Hosmer, it was his 18th homer of the season.
“It was a huge hit for us,” manager Ned Yost said.
Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas also homered for Kansas City, which had already clinched the AL Central title. They will host the first two games of their ALDS, and a Game 5 if necessary.
Combined with Toronto splitting its doubleheader in Baltimore, the Royals pulled within a game of the Blue Jays for home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs. Toronto did win the season series, giving it the tiebreaker over the Royals.
But that’s still the target for the Royals, who came within one victory of winning last year’s World Series.
“As many games as we can get at home as possible, that’s what we want to try and do,” Hosmer said. “Obviously we would like home-field advantage throughout the whole entire postseason but just got to see how that plays out. To have the first round at least at home is definitely big for us.”
The win was a painful one for Kansas City. In the seventh, Lorenzo Cain fouled a pitch from Jose Quintana off his right knee. He remained in the game and grounded out to third but he didn’t make it to first and was replaced in the bottom of the inning.
The Royals said Cain has a right knee contusion and is day-to-day.
Edinson Volquez went six innings, allowed one run and nine hits while striking out five but couldn’t pick up his first win since Sept. 8. Franklin Morales (4-2) pitched a scoreless inning in relief and Wade Davis picked up his 15th save in 16 tries.
Quintana remained winless since Sept. 12 despite going nine innings while allowing three runs and five hits.
“He was great, outstanding, you can use all of them,” Chicago manager Robin Ventura said. “We thought we had a chance there to get him one.”
Chicago gave Quintana a 1-0 lead in the second on Adam Eaton’s run-scoring single. The White Sox had three singles off Volquez in the first and three more in the second but only scored one run.
Gordon led off the third with his 13th home run over the fence in deep left-center field. Moustakas’ two-run homer in the sixth gave Kansas City a 3-1 lead.
Jose Abreu hit his 30th homer in the seventh for Chicago to pull within 3-2. In the eighth, Chicago tied the game with a double by Tyler Flowers when his drive to right off Kelvin Herrera went over Paulo Orlando’s head and bounced over the wall, bringing in Tyler Saladino.
But Robertson couldn’t hold Kansas City in the 10th.
“I just wasn’t able to nail it down there in the 10th and give us another chance to score a run,” Robertson said.
