How Royals flipped script in Sunday’s series-clinching win vs. Seattle Mariners
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Royals scored four runs in the fifth to erase Seattle’s lead.
- Seth Lugo tossed 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on 86 pitches.
- Royals won 8-3, improved to 22-31, and won the season series 5-1.
The Seattle Mariners were an out away from untangling a messy fifth inning against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday afternoon.
And the Royals ultimately made them pay.
The Royals had runners in scoring position with no outs at Kauffman Stadium. But Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo found a way to retire KC stars Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr. in succession.
Woo just needed one final putout. After falling behind 2-0 in the count against Vinnie Pasquantino, the Mariners right-hander intentionally walked the Royals slugger, loading the bases.
That turned out to be a big mistake. Royals captain Salvador Perez hit a two-run single and rookie catcher Carter Jensen added a two-run double.
“He fell behind on Vinnie,” Perez said. “Vinnie is a great hitter. Just a little bit slow to start the season and it’s gonna be good. When they walked him, I was just trying to do my job. He threw me a first-pitch strike and I swung it pretty good.”
Those four runs erased Seattle’s slim advantage — initially secured by Julio Rodriguez’s first-inning home run off KC starter Seth Lugo — and gave the Royals an 8-6 victory to close out the second series of their nine-game homestand.
The Royals opened the homestand with four consecutive losses. They had timely hits and better luck in clutch situations in their last two games.
“We know they attack a lot of hitters,” Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia said of Seattle, before referring to KC’s next foe. “So we’ve been aggressive this series. Let’s see how the Yankees come and make a plan for them.”
In Sunday’s decisive fifth inning, the Royals attacked Woo at the plate. Michael Massey worked a leadoff walk and Kyle Isbel followed with an infield single. Both runners advanced when Woo threw wildly to first base.
The Royals were set up offensively. Woo got Garcia to ground out with the infield in and Witt to fly out to shallow center field. Yet he couldn’t find the strike zone against Pasquantino.
Perez laced a 96.2 mph sinker into left field. Jensen was next up and he hit a double off the left-field wall that drifted away from outfielder Randy Arozarena.
Perez and Jensen, the KC catchers, combined for five RBIs. The Royals went 4 for 11 with runners in scoring position (RISP).
“I think that’s our motto, extra 90 feet,” Jensen said of the Royals’ aggression on the basepaths. “And the next thing you know, the offense gets going. We get some base hits through and we are rolling from there.”
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The offensive outburst sure helped Royals starter Lugo. He pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on 86 pitches for his second victory of the season against four losses.
Lugo absorbed Rodriguez’s early home run and settled into his start. He surrendered six hits, walked two batters and recorded three strikeouts. And after scoring in the first inning, the Mariners wouldn’t score again until the seventh.
“I think the biggest thing early was that I was executing fastballs on both sides of the plate with movement left and right,” Lugo said. “Also, the sinker, cutter (and) four-seam were staying in the (strike) zone and getting good locations.”
Colt Emerson and J.P. Crawford hit RBI singles to help Seattle cut into Kansas City’s lead in the seventh. This prompted Royals manager Matt Quatraro to turn to his bullpen — Daniel Lynch IV, John Schreiber and Lucas Erceg nailed down the victory.
Erceg didn’t look sharp after a long layoff from pitching. Because of game situations, he had not thrown for a week. The Mariners scored three runs off him in the ninth, but he was able to regroup and avoid a blown save.
Before Erceg entered the game in the ninth, the Royals gave KC’s bullpen some needed cushion. Garcia hit a two-run single to expand the hosts’ lead to five runs in the eighth.
“For Maiky (Garcia) to come through there, we ended up getting two, which was huge,” Quatraro said. “That’s the whole reason we were running (Tyler) Tolbert (who came on as a pinch-runner for Jac Caglianone) and trying to create something.”
With the win the Royals improved to 22-31 this season. They welcome the Yankees to begin a three-game series on Monday — Memorial Day.
Seattle (25-29) committed three errors Sunday. The Royals won the season series 5-1, after sweeping three games from the Mariners in Seattle earlier in the season.
What’s next: Royals right-hander Michael Wacha (4-2, 2.70 ERA) will start Monday afternoon against the New York Yankees. First pitch is set for 2:40 p.m. Central Time.
This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 2:12 PM with the headline "How Royals flipped script in Sunday’s series-clinching win vs. Seattle Mariners."
