Whit Merrifield walks off on Yankees, 8-7

The Royals hit four home runs, scored a walk-off hit by Whit Merrifield, and salvaged the last game of a three-game set against the Yankees. The final score was 8-7. A bunch of Johnson County New York fans who have never been to New York went home sad. It was great.

The Yankees jumped to a quick 1-0 lead, but Martin Maldonado hit a three-run homer in the second inning to give the Royals the lead for good. It was his second homer of the year, and it doubled his RBI on the season, which is hilarious.

With the homer, the Royals hit the double-digit RBI mark from catchers in game #53. I miss Salvador Perez.

Ryan O’Hearn hit a solo shot in the fourth (5). Hunter Dozier hit a two-run bomb in the fifth (11). Jorge Soler absolutely clobbered a solo homer after that (12); it went into the upper fountains section. 7-1.

The Royals did all of this damage against Domingo German, who is probably the favorite for AL Cy Young, at least entering today. He is 9-0 against teams not named the Royals, and he should be 0-2 against Kansas City. He’s only allowed nine home runs this year, but seven of them were against the Royals! Hilarious.

That’s when the comeback began. The Yankees got a three-run homer in the sixth to make Danny Duffy’s line appear significantly worse than he was. Duffy was great; he scattered five hits and four runs in six quality innings, but three of his four runs were unearned. Adalberto Mondesi committed an error earlier in the sixth that made all three of the runs that scored on Gleyber Torres’ shot.

Duffy should be 4-1. He would be 4-1 if it weren’t for Ian Kennedy. But instead, he settled for a no-decision.

Jake Diekman continued his great season with a scoreless eighth inning. Then Ian Kennedy came in and absolutely pooped himself, giving up three runs on a walk and four singles. He was given a three-run cushion and he couldn’t hold it. It was just a maddening inning to watch; the slowest-working pitcher in baseball struggling to find the zone and getting nicked to death in the most predictable fashion possible.

They blew a 7-1 lead in four innings. Of course they did. Then they loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth and didn’t score. Of course they did.

But Whit Merrifield saved the day in the 10th inning when he hit a walk-off single to third base. The ball was hit so hard that it knocked the third baseman over, eliminating any chance he had to make a play. It’s the Royals’ first walk-off over the Yankees since the Bill Clinton administration (courtesty of @BHIndepMO on Twitter).

Kevin McCarthy, who pitched a scoreless 10th inning, earned the win.

That’s 12 straight series the Royals have not won, but they haven’t been swept in any of them, either. They’re just bad enough to not win anything, but they’re not quite bad enough to get swept a bunch of times and get a top draft pick. It’s so Royal.

The Royals next head to Chicago for a three-game set with the White Sox. Homer Bailey starts on Monday, so the next game I will be watching will be Tuesday.