Salvador Perez hit a walk-off grand slam with one out in the bottom of the ninth as the Kansas City Royals rallied for a dramatic 8-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium.
Perez belted a 3-2 slider by Twins reliever Trevor Hildenberger (4-4) over the fence in left-center for his 26th homer of the season and sixth against Minnesota, which lost its seventh straight road game.
Adalberto Mondesi homered, stole a base and scored three runs, Jorge Bonifacio doubled and had three hits and Whit Merrifield had two RBIs for Kansas City (51-96). Jason Hammel (3-13), who pitched a scoreless ninth, picked up the win.
Robbie Grossman and Willians Astudillo each had three hits and an RBI for Minnesota (67-80). Joe Mauer doubled and had two hits, and Gregorio Petit also had two hits and scored a run for the Twins.
Mondesi gave Kansas City a 1-0 lead in the first when he walked, stole second and then came around to score on a two-out single by Perez. The Royals made it 2-0 an inning later on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Merrifield to drive in Bonifacio, who had singled.
An RBI double by Mauer drove in Petit to start to a three-run fifth for the Twins. It was the 598th career extra-base hit for Mauer, passing Tony Oliva for fourth place on the team's all-time list.
Jake Cave then lined a single to center to drive in Mauer and later scored on a single by Grossman to put the Twins in front. Grossman led off the seventh with a double and scored on a single by Astudillo to increase the Twins' lead to 4-2.
Mondesi clobbered his eighth home run in the seventh off reliever Trevor May, a 437-foot drive into the water fountains in right-center, to cut it to 4-3.
The Royals tied it in the ninth when Rosell Herrera doubled to left and scored on a single by Merrifield. Mondesi followed with a single to right, sending Merrifield to third. The Twins then walked Alex Gordon to load the bases and set up a five-man infield, but Perez foiled their plans with his 422-foot blast.
--Field Level Media
Minnesota | Kansas City | |
Jose Berrios | Player | Jorge Lopez |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
6.0 | IP | 4.1 |
9 | Strikeouts | 1 |
5 | Hits | 9 |
3.00 | ERA | 6.23 |
Minnesota | Kansas City | |
Willians Astudillo | Player | Jorge Bonifacio |
3 | Hits | 3 |
1 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
3 | TB | 4 |
.750 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Minnesota | 13 | 0 | 15 | .325 | 24 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Kansas City | 11 | 2 | 20 | .324 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 0 |