Nelson Velazquez homered and drove in the go-ahead run with a double as the Kansas City Royals beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-4 in 11 innings on Saturday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Royals pushed their winning streak to a season-high eight games, while Tampa Bay lost its sixth in a row.
Kansas City scored three runs in the top of the 11th to put the game away after giving away three earlier leads.
In the top of the 11th, Velazquez drove in automatic runner Freddy Fermin with a double to center and scored on Adam Frazier’s infield single. Maikel Garcia added on with an RBI single.
The Royals had gone ahead 4-3 in the top of the 10th on Vinnie Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly to left, but the Rays tied it for a third time in the bottom of the inning when Jonny DeLuca doubled to left to score Harold Ramirez.
The Royals jumped on top 1-0 in the second inning when Velazquez ripped his fifth homer of the year to left-center off Rays starter Aaron Civale.
Kansas City doubled the lead in the third when Bobby Witt Jr. drove in Hunter Renfroe with an RBI single to left.
Tampa Bay struck back when Jonathan Aranda led off the bottom of the fourth by hitting the 10th pitch of his at-bat against Royals right-hander Brady Singer 416 feet into the right-field seats for his first homer of 2024.
The Rays tied it up at 2 in the fifth inning when Richie Palacios singled and scored on Isaac Paredes’ grounder to third.
The Royals went up 3-2 in the seventh on a bizarre play when Dairon Blanco’s sacrifice bunt attempt was turned into a double play and Frazier scored.
Tampa Bay’s Jose Siri scored on Ramirez’s pinch-hit single to tie things again at 3 in the bottom of the seventh.
James McArthur (2-2) got the win with two innings of relief and Nick Anderson picked up his first save. Former Royals pitcher Richard Lovelady (0-3) took the loss.
Neither starting pitcher figured in the decision.
Civale worked five innings and allowed two runs on four hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
Singer allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits over five innings, striking out three with two walks.
– Field Level Media
