Freddy Fermin drilled a game-winning single with the bases loaded and none out in the 11th inning to give the Kansas City Royals a 4-3 victory over the visiting Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.
Drew Waters went 3-for-4 with a homer and a triple and Kris Bubic pitched seven scoreless innings for the Royals in the opener of a two-game set. The Royals have won two straight games following a six-game losing streak.
Jacob Stallings laced a three-run double to give Colorado the lead in the top of the ninth inning but the Rockies’ road losing streak eventually extended to 11 games. Colorado is 1-12 away from home this season and just 4-18 overall.
Mark Canha was the automatic runner in the Kansas City 11th and Bobby Witt Jr. was intentionally walked. Trevor Kinley (0-1) threw a wild pitch on his first delivery home to move the runners up and Colorado then intentionally walked Vinny Pasquantino.
Fermin then hit the single to center to score Canha with the decisive run. The reserve catcher entered the game as a pinch-runner in the bottom of the ninth but had a huge impact as he also picked off Colorado’s Mickey Moniak off third in the top of the 10th.
Daniel Lynch IV (3-0) pitched a scoreless top of the 11th for the Royals.
The Rockies were one out away from being blanked in the ninth when Royals closer Carlos Estevez issued walks to Ryan McMahon, Hunter Goodman and Michael Toglia. Stallings then jumped on a 1-2 slider and ripped it into the left-field corner to clear the bases.
Kansas City answered in the bottom of the ninth as Salvador Perez singled to right off Seth Halvorsen and Mikael Garcia followed with a double to left. Michael Massey hit a sacrifice fly to left to score pinch-runner Fermin and tie it.
Bubic outdueled Colorado’s Ryan Feltner. He gave up four hits and struck out six without issuing a walk while lowering his ERA to 1.45.
Feltner gave up one run and three hits and struck out four over seven innings. He allowed just one walk and after issuing six in just 2 2/3 innings in his last start against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Waters led off the sixth by smacking a 1-0 changeup from Feltner over the wall in right center for his first home run of the season.
Waters hit the three-bagger to right with one out in the eighth off Jaden Hill. The Royals then executed a safety squeeze with Kyle Isbel bunting toward first and Waters beating the throw home from Toglia.
